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AUTHENTIC HISTORY

KU KLUX KLAN, 1865-1877

SUSAN LAWRENCE DAVIS

1924

SUSAN LAWRENCE DAVIS

Publisher

488 Seventh Avenue
New York, N. Y.

Monox Picture, Foreign, and Aix
Other Rights Reserved

Printed in U.S. A.

63-21776

HOUSTON PUBLIC LIBRARY

To My Mother, Sarah Ann (McClel-
lan) Davis, and the Other Southern
Women Who Designed and Manu-
factured with Their Own Fingers the Re-
galia for the Ku Klux Klansmen and the
Trappings for Their Horses, and to the
Ku Klux Klan 1865-1877 Both the Liv-
ing and the Dead, This History Is Grate*
fully Dedicated.

PREFACE

The purpose of the "Authentic History Ku Klux
Klan, 1865-1877," is in justification of the men and
measures adopted which led to the redemption of the
Southern States from Radical, Carpet-bag and Negro
rule as was imposed by the Federal Government's
reconstruction measures upon them after the surren-
der of the Confederate States Army at Appomatox
Court House, Virginia, 1865.

Ex-President Woodrow Wilson said in the Atlan-
tic Monthly, January, 1901, in an article, "The Re-
construction of the Southern States": "Reconstruc-
tion is still revolutionary matter. Those who delve
in it find it like a banked fire, still hot and fiery
within, for all it has lain under the ashes a whole
generation ; and a thing to take fire from. It is hard
to construct an argument here which shall not be
heated, a source of passion no less than of light. . . .
The revolution lies there as natural as it was re-
markable and full of prophecy. It is this which
makes the whole period of reconstruction so peculiarly
worthy of our study. Every step of the policy, every
feature of the time which wrought this subtle trans-
formation, should receive our careful scrutiny. We
are now far enough removed from the time to make
that scrutiny both close and dispassionate. A new
age gives it new significance."

AUTHENTIC HISTORY

I realize that the period covering reconstruction
and reestablishing white supremacy in the States
which seceded from the United States in 1861 is a
"sleeping volcano and a Vesuvius at rest," but it is
not my intention to start a conflagration, rather to
throw enough light on the Ku Klux Klan of that
period to justify their mysterious movements in that
momentous time by which they steadied the hatred,
passion and injustice heaped upon an overpowered
but brave and loyal people who had lost all except
their honor and their faith in God during the Civil
War.

With their own Government and the remainder of
the world against them the Ku Klux Klan raised the
South Phoenix-like from her ashes, and in the re-
building caught "the sunshine of forgiveness in the
brick and mortar," the immortal words of Henry
Grady.

Although many things are still "invisible" about
the Ku Klux Klan one thing is very plain; that is,
that they have been so unjustly misrepresented by
would-be historians and "investigators," I have un-
dertaken the task of correcting these false impressions
so far as lies in my power.

Having known personally many of the original
Ku Klux Klan and gleaned from them, though re-
luctantly, facts stated in this book, I have also in-
cluded documentary evidence setting forth the
causes which were conducive to the life and strength
of this powerful Order.

A vast amount of research work has been done to

KU KLUX KLAN, 1865-1877 vii

confirm the statements here laid down, representing as
they do a glowing tribute to the lofty principles and
heroic chivalry of the Ku Klux Klansmen of the "In-
visible Empire" who stood ever ready to see justice
done to black and white, high and low, and above all
to protect the womanhood of the country and to se-
cure for their children and their children's children
contentment and happiness in the land we love.

In the collection of illustrations for this book I de-
sire to extend my thanks to Mrs. Stella G. Hawkins,
Mr. and Mrs. H. H. K. Jefferson, Margaret Wallace
(Mrs. Victor Gage), Margaret Gage (Mrs. Morris
W. Bush), Birmingham, Ala., Marie Bankhead
(Mrs. Thomas M. Owen), State Historian of Ala-
bama, and her assistant Miss V. Baxter, Bessie Collins
(Mrs. John R. Moore), Montgomery, Ala.

Mr. William B. A. Taylor (Public Library), Dr.
and Mrs. Henry Gaines Hawn, Mrs. Phoebe Hawn
Northrop, Miss Jane Northrop (My Mascot), Mrs.
James Henry Parker, Mrs. F. G. Burke, Miss
Leila Usher, Mr. and Mrs. William P. Hamann
and Mr. and Mrs. Pendleton Watson, New York
City.

Mr. and Mrs. Arthur Lloyd Seaton, Sadie Ford
(Mrs. Walter Edward Hutton), Mr. William Alex-
ander Miller (Library of Congress), Mr. L. C.
Handy (Artist), Captain Fred Beall, Colonel Lee
Crandall and Mr. Benjamin Carter, Washington*
D. C.

Miss Mary Mason, Judge James E. Horton, Jr.,
Anna Hobbs (Mrs. James E. Horton, Jr.). The

viii AUTHENTIC HISTORY

late Mr. Thomas Maclin Hobbs, Mr. William Cass
Nichols (husband of my sister, Paxie Davis), Mr.
James H. Gordon, Officer of the United Confeder-
ate Veterans' Camp. Miss Mary MeClellan, and my
sister, Miss Ann Richardson Davis, Athens, Ala-
bama.

I am greatly indebted to Miss Edith Pope of the
Confederate Veteran of Nashville, Tennessee, for
the loan of several portraits of members of the Ku
Klux Klan (1865-1877) and other courtesies, and
to the late Colonel Sumner A. Cunningham
(Founder of the Confederate Veteran), and to Mrs.
John Harwood and Miss Cynthia Carter, Pulaski,
Tennessee.

I wish especially to acknowledge my appreciation
of the marvelous illustration and painstaking exe-
cution of the Ku Klux Klansman of 1865-1877 on
the cover of the book drawn from my description by
the great American cartoonist, Mr. C. K. Berryman
(a native Kentuckian), and for the outlined portrait
of President Harding within the tribute paid by him
to the Confederate Veterans, which was engrossed
for this history by Mr. Samuel James Pridgen of
Atlanta, Georgia, to whom I am greatly indebted.

Susan Lawrence Davis,
Athens, Alabama.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGB

I Introductory 1

II Tennessee. Pulaski Ku Klux Klan Organized 6

III Alabama. Athens Ku Klux Klan Organized . 35

IV The First Convention, Ku Klux Klan, Nash-

ville, Tennessee, May, 1867 80

V Fourth of July Parades 96

VI Tennessee Anti-Ku Klux Klan Law . . . 109

VII President Johnson's Policy 129

VIII The Federal Ku Klux Acts 144?

IX The Union League of America . . . . . 171

X Conditions from 1870-1877 180

XI The "Invisible Empire" — Reconstruction in

the District of Columbia 192

XII Virginia 197

XIII Mississippi 212

XIV Georgia . . 221

XV North Carolina 232

XVI Texas 245

XVII Missouri 255

XVIII Arkansas 269

XIX Florida 278

XX South Carolina 282

XXI Louisiana 300

XXII Close of the Ku Klux Klan 308

INTRODUCTORY.

No complete history has been written of the Ku
Klux Klan, and I am endeavoring to place in this
volume all the available material that I have gathered
covering many years. Many of these facts were given
me by the originators of the Ku Klux Klan at
Pulaski, Tennessee, and the original members of the
Ku Klux Klan of Athens, Alabama, the first one
organized in that state.

An unfortunate publicity was given the Ku Klux
Klan in 1884, when Mr. D. L. Wilson who was not
a Ku Klux, and was a stranger in its birthplace,
Pulaski, Tenn., became interested in its origin and
began asking about it. He was so fascinated with
the recital of the facts that he was told that Captain
John C. Lester, who was one of the founders of the
Ku Klux Klan had been requested by the others to
put in writing for the first time such facts as they
cared to give out then, regarding the Ku Klux Klan.

Mr. Wilson requested Captain Lester to allow him
to see this manuscript in the winter of 1884, and
offered to assist him in finding a publisher, if he would
allow him to copyright the work jointly with him.
Captain Lester was then a member of the Tennessee
Legislature, and while in Nashville left the details of

2 AUTHENTIC HISTORY

the publication and copyright to Mr. Wilson. Mr.
Wilson filed the title in the Copyright Office and
changed the name of the book from "Ku Klux Klan,
Its Origin, Growth and Disbandment," to "The Rise
and Fall of the Invisible Empire." He then altered
the manuscript in such a manner as to express the
view that the work of the Ku Klux Klan had partially
failed.

With this changed title he submitted it to the man-
ufacturing company Wheeler, Osborn, and Duck-
worth, Nashville, Tenn. One of these gentlemen
happened to be a Ku Klux, and went to Captain Les-
ter and objected to the title, as he said the Ku Klux
Klan "had risen but had never fallen." Captain
Lester then filed the first title he had given the book,
in the copyright office "Ku Klux Klan, Its Origin,
Growth and Disbandment."

Mr. Wilson had distributed quite a number of these
books but the original Ku Klux Klan at Pulaski re-
quested Captain Lester to correct the errors and com-
plete the history, as they attached no blame whatever
to him for this unfortunate occurrence. Captain Les-
ter was rewriting a complete history of the Ku Klux
Klan from 1865 to 1877, inclusive, when his death
occurred at Alexandria, Term., and many of his notes
were given me by other Ku Klux and members of
his family.

Believing, as the Ku Klux Klan did even in 1884,
that their mission had been fulfilled, the entire In-
visible Empire, disapproved of Mr. Wilson's version
of it, and made an effort to stop the sale of the book.

KU KLUX KLAN, 1865-1877 3

While this effort was being made to revise the book,
Mr. Wilson read an article in the Century Magazine,
New York, entitled "Mob or Magistrate"; and as a
contribution to this subject, he sent the Ku Klux
Klan book to the magazine without the knowledge
or consent of Captain Lester, and signed it "D. L.
Wilson." The Century Magazine published this in
the July number, 1884.

Editorially, and under "Topics of the Times,"
in the Century Magazine of that date, there was much
discussion for and against the Ku Klux Klan.

Mr. Wilson omitted the chapters which Captain
Lester intended to add to the new edition of the book
which covered the ostensible disbandment in 1869; and
this period has been accepted generally as the time
of the close of the Ku Klux Klan. However, the true
facts concerning its disbandment, as well as much of
the material in the following chapters, were given me
by Capt. John C. Lester, Major James R. Crowe,
Capt. John B. Kennedy, Judge William Richardson,
Capt. Robert A. McClellan, Major Robert Donnell,
Capt. DeWitt Clinton Davis, the wives and daughters
of many of the original Ku Klux Klan, by my father,
Colonel Lawrence Ripley Davis, Colonel Sumner A.
Cunningham and General John B. Gordon, and other
Ku Klux.

I have obtained material from the Confederate
Veteran and from current newspapers, and last but
not least I have interviewed and obtained first-hand
information from hundreds of the Ku Klux Klan
throughout the South, many of whom are still living.

4 AUTHENTIC HISTORY

Having been born and reared and spent most of my
life within a radius of fifty miles from the birthplace
of the Ku Klux Klan, the subject has always been
near to my heart, and I recall the sense of protection
afforded by the Ku Klux Klan in my childhood.

The compiling of this data has been one of the
greatest pleasures of my life, having brought me in
contact with many of the great men who were the
leaders of the South during its most perilous history.
I feel a deep sense of gratitude to the Ku Klux Klan
and trust this explanation will erase the false im-
pression that they failed in their purposes.

In support of this explanation I give the follow-
ing from the Century Magazine of July 1884, the
same number in which D. L. Wilson published the
article on the Ku Klux Klan, which would lead one
to think that the Ku Klux Klan had at least partially
failed.

Quoting the words of this magazine: * * * * *
"There is a growing sympathy with the whites of the
South ***** the whites had great provocation.
In the same spirit men are beginning to accept the
success of the Ku Klux Revolution as being in the
results the inevitable solution of an anomalous polit-
ical situation. Peace and happiness could never come
to the South so long as the political lines were co-
existent with the color lines, with the blacks in the
ascendency. "

Captain John C. Lester never married and Mr.
Wilson and he were both dead when the copyright on
the Ku Klux Klan book copyrighted by them, ex-

KU KLUX KLAN, 1865-1877 5

pired. It was not re-copyrighted by Captain Lester's
heirs because they knew that the book was not satis-
factory and was being re-written by Captain Lester
at his death. In 1905 Mr. Walter L. Flemming
edited "The Ku Klux Klan; Its Origin, Growth and
Disbandment," and re-copyrighted it in the name of
Walter Lynwood Flemming.

Mr. Flemming was born in Alabama in a country
quite remote from the origin of the Ku Klux Klan,
and seems to know very little about the work of the
Klan ; and certainly added nothing new in his edition
save a few names of the members of the Ku Klux
Klan. He chose to retain the erroneous impression
placed in the manuscript by D. L. Wilson, who stated
that the Ku Klux Klan disbanded in 1869 instead of
1877.

Captain John C. Lester was born in Giles County,
Tenn., and died at Alexandria. All dates were de-
stroyed by fire. He practised law a number of years
in Sheffield, Ala. He was a Christian gentleman and
a gallant Confederate soldier. He originated the
idea of the Klub which afterwards became the Ku
Klux Klan.

%%bXUXV^ JOf ®0tXgt:e30 r t* wit:

Be it remembered

77brf on the ^%L&£t&2&L-. —p^d&y of rQrt/tdi/' 18j£l£.

CjdJ^^^^rJj> y?v r\ A . , ha ^deposited in this Office the title.

of a -S $ T MH< y ...

the title op descnpthtyof which is in the follovxng words, to wit:

M J4 & VM K , ^\ .K rt/r\ y-

the right whereof 7&co claim as atMer — md proprietor 3 in conformity with the laws of
the United States respecting Copyrights.

j^^A-^y

L&rarUn of Congress

J hereby certify that the foregoing is a true copy of the original record of copyright.

§n fcitruss fo^trtof, the seal of this Office has been hereto affixed this ^£&4£d&nJ&L^l

day of fo/JAAtof- , J9JJl .

^i^Oi^t^OHkgistn of Coj&right*

Copprtflbt ©fflce of tbCCtntfeo States of amerlca,
TOasbington, E>. c.

(DK, 1622—100)

EN BKW.Y OU0T» »IUt

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS

WASHINGTON

August 11,. 1923.

Dear Madams

Search hae been made in accordance with your request and

we find the registrations shown as follows. In one caee as noted

copies were received. In the other case we have not found in your

records mention of deposit of copies,

The Rise and Fall of the Indivisible Empire", a History of
the Origin and Growth of the Ku Klux Klan. No. 5401,
March 13, 1884, Copyright by D.L» Wilson and John C.
Lester. No record found of deposit of copies in connection
with this registration.

"The Ku Klux Klan, Its Origin, Growth and Disbandment'*.
No. 11219, June 3, 1884, Copyright by D.L. Wilson and
John C. Lester, Two copies deposited Oct. 3, 1884.

Respectfully,

THORVALD 80LB2RQ,

Hiss $Ubsh L. Davis,
1716 Bonn. Ave. ,
Washington, D.C»

Registerof Copyrights,
Chief of Correspondence Division ,

II.

TENNESSEE.
PULASKI KU KLUX KLAN ORGANIZED.

On December 24, 1865, at Pulaski, Tennessee,
there assembled in a small brick building, the law
office of Judge Thomas M. Jones, six young men
who were soldiers in the Confederate States Army.
They had lost all their property, there were no busi-
ness prospects for them at the time ; it was Christmas
Eve and their town was saddened not only by the
wreckage of Civil War, but by the visitation of a
cyclone which had killed and injured many of its
inhabitants and destroyed many homes; yet, the
spirit of youth could not be conquered in their heroic
hearts. One of these young men, Captain John C.
Lester, said:

"Boys, let's start something to break this mo-
notony, and to cheer up our mothers and the girls.
Let's start a club of some kind."

The evening was spent in obtaining their object —
diversion and amusement. Two committees were ap-
pointed to select a name and to prepare a set of rules
for the government of the order and the initiation of
future members. They then adjourned to meet the
following week.

KU KLUX KLAN, 1865-1877 7

Before the arrival of the next meeting one of the
young men, Captain John B. Kennedy, was requested
to stay in the home of Col. Thomas Martin, for its
protection, while he and his family were absent from
Pulaski. Captain Kennedy invited the other organ-
izers of the club, Frank O. McCord, Calvin E. Jones,
John C. Lester, Richard R. Reed and James R.
Crowe, to meet him there.

During the evening the organization was per-
fected. Captain John B. Kennedy, on the committee
to select a name mentioned one which he had con-
sidered, "Kukloi," from the Greek word "Kuklos,"
meaning a band or circle. James R. Crowe said "Call
it Ku Klux," and no one will know what it means.
John C. Lester said: "Add Klan as we are all
Scotch-Irish descent."

He then repeated the words: "Ku Klux Klan," the
first time these words ever fell from human tongue.
The weirdness of the alliteration appealed to the mys-
terious within them ; so the name was adopted with a
feeling that they had chosen something which would
excite the curiosity of their friends and carry out their
idea of amusement, which, most unexpectedly to
them, proved a boon to Pulaski and the South.

James R. Crowe suggested to make it more mys-
terious, that a costume be adopted. They then made
a raid upon Mrs. Martin's linen closet and robed
themselves with boyish glee in her stiff linen sheets
and pillow-cases, as masquerading was a popular
form of entertainment in those days. Wishing to

8 AUTHENTIC HISTORY

make an impression they borrowed some horses from
a near-by stable and disguised them with sheets.

They then mounted and rode through the darkness,
calling at the homes of their mothers and sweethearts,
without speaking a word. They rode slowly through
the streets of Pulaski waving to the people and mak-
ing grotesque gestures, which created merriment to
the unsuperstitious, and to the superstitious, great
fear.

The next day they heard many favorable comments
on the unknown boys who had so paraded, having
optimism enough to penetrate the gloom which had
settled over this once prosperous and happy commun-
ity. Aside from the amusement they had created, it
was reported on the streets, that many of the idle
negroes thought they had seen ghosts from the near-
by battle-fields, and had with haste gone back to their
former masters, only too willing to work.

The trivial incident of the selection of the ghostly
regalia had a most important bearing on the future
of the organization. The potency of the name "Ku
Klux Klan" was not wholly in the impression made
by it on the public, but the members of the Ku Klux
Klan themselves first felt its mysterious power, and
realized that through this means they might accom-
plish something towards alleviating the distress then
prevalent in their community. Yet their dominant
idea was amusement, based on secrecy and mystery.

The one obligation exacted from members was to
maintain profound secrecy concerning everything
pertaining to the Ku Klux Klan. This obligation

KIT KLUX KLAN, 1865-1877 9

prohibited disclosing that they were members of the
Ku Klux Klan or giving the name of anyone of them
who was a member, and from soliciting members.

This was exacted first, because of their determina-
tion to play upon the curiosity of the public; sec-
ondly, it was designed to prevent any responsibility
resting on them following the initiation of new mem-
bers. They desired new members and knew human
nature well enough to feel that if they made the im-
pression that they were very exclusive and select,
applications for membership would be numerous.

This idea proved to be true. One ruse to arouse
the interest of desired applicants was to say to them
"I'm going to join the Ku Klux." If the person ad-
dressed showed a desire to join, the member would
say, "I think I know how to get you in if you will
meet me at the home of Col. Martin where I am
staying for its protection in his absence" — and they
would then set the hour. Many hundreds were ini-
tiated into the Ku Klux Klan in this residence from
January until March, 1866, and it was here that the
organization was perfected.

On March 25, 1866, the Ku Klux Klan having in-
creased in numbers, so that they did not wish to meet
in the private residence, they established regular head-
quarters at the home of Dr. Ben. Carter which
had been recently wrecked by the cyclone, leaving
only three rooms and a large cellar beneath them.

This was on a hill on the outskirts of Pulaski.
Around the ruins of this home were the storm-torn
trunks of trees which had once been a splendid grove.

10 AUTHENTIC HISTORY

Now they were like grim, spectre sentinels, making
a dreary, desolate uncanny place, but it was most
suitable for the purpose of the Ku Klux Klan as it
had the appearance of being haunted and they were
by the superstitious believed to be the spirits of the
Confederate dead.

This mystery and secrecy of the Ku Klux Klan
made a deep impression upon the minds of many men
who united with it at this time, and their idea was that
they contemplated some great and important mission.
This belief caused its rapid growth, though there was
not a word in the obligation taken to point out such a
conclusion, but the impression grew and the high-
sounding titles of the officers and the grotesque dress
of its members seemed to them to mean more than
mere sport.

The Committee on Rules had determined that no
military or political titles should be used, and their
recommendations were adopted to carry out the idea
of the name and the regalia by mysterious and mean-
ingless titles. So the following officers' names were
adopted: Grand Cyclops, Grand Magi, Grand Turk,
Grand Scribe, Lictors, and Night Hawks. The
name of the meeting-place was called "The Den."
The two Lictors were the outer guards of the Den
and the Night Hawks were the couriers. The mem-
bers were called Ghouls.

When a meeting was held one Lictor was stationed
near the remains of the house on Carter Hill, where
there was a cellar used for initiation. The other Lic-
tor was placed some distance away, on the road lead-

KU KLUX KLAN, 1865-1877 11

ing into Pulaski. They were dressed in the regalia
of the Ku Klux Klan and bore spears as their badge
of office.

Through curiosity many men came to this Hill and
approached the Lictors for membership. The Lictors
would blow the whistles which had been adopted as
a means of communication and the Night Hawks
would answer with their whistles and take charge of
the candidate, blindfold him and take him into the
Den.

He would then be led around the subterranean
rooms and treated to some rough sport after which
he would be taken before the Grand Cyclops, who
was Mr. Frank O. McCord, and many questions put
to him. Often an unsatisfactory answer would cause
him to be rejected. If accepted the Grand Cyclops
would say: "Place him before the royal altar and
adorn his head with the regal crown."

The oath would then be administered. The royal
altar was a large mirror, and the regal crown was
an old torn hat bedecked with donkey ears.

The Grand Turk would then remove the bandage
from his eyes and the candidate would see his comical
image in the mirror. Then the Grand Cyclops would
relax his rules and the hitherto silent Den would ring
with shouts and peals of laughter of the Ku Klux
still in their disguise.

When a man too young applied the Lictors would
tell him that he could not join. But when he per-
sisted, he would be blindfolded and left seated on a
fallen tree, to wait; after many patient hours he

12 AUTHENTIC HISTORY

would remove the bandage in desperation and seek
the shelter of his home.

When men of undesirable character applied they
would be taken to the top of the hill that rises by a
gentle slope on the northern limits of Pulaski,
placed in a barrel and sent whirling down the hill. It
is needless to say that they did not learn any of the
Ku Klux Klan's secrets, as had been their original
intention.

The following is a statement of the Ku Klux Oath
given me by Major Robert Donnell who was Grand
Scribe of the Athens, Alabama Ku Klux Klan. He
recited it from memory:

The Ku Klux Oath:

"I have applied for membership in the Ku Klux
Klan of my own free will, and in the presence of God
do solemnly swear that I will never reveal to any one
any intimation of the signs, symbols, passwords, grips
or secrets of the Ku Klux Klan. I shall never reveal
to any one that I am a member of the Ku Klux Klan
or that I know anyone who is a member.

"If for any cause whatever I shall withdraw from
the Ku Klux Klan, I will keep its secrets as invio-
lately as when I was a member. As a member of the
Ku Klux Klan I shall not be allowed to take any in-
toxicating liquor to any meeting of the Den. I
shall not attend any meeting or go with the Ku Klux
Klan on any mission when intoxicated.

"I take the pledge of total abstinence from intoxi-
cating liquors during the duration of my membership
in the Ku Klux Klan. Any member of the Ku Klux

KU KLUX KLAN, 1865-1877 13

Klan shall be expelled for violating this rule by a
majority vote of the officers and Ghouls of the Den
to which he belongs, and his banishment shall be
final."

The grip, passwords and ciphers of the Ku Klux
Klan remain wrapped in mystery to this day, as I
have asked many hundreds of them for this informa-
tion and have received the answer that those points
regarding the Ku Klux Klan would die with them.

The following gives the duties of tlie officers, as
adopted by the first organization.

It shall be the duty of the Grand Cyclops to take
charge of the Den at meetings and initiate new mem-
bers. It shall be his duty to appoint regular meetings
of the Den and to call irregular meetings when
needed. He alone can initiate candidates for mem-
bership, and reprimand members for disobedience of
orders. The first Grand Cyclops was Frank O.
McCord.

The Grand Magi: It shall be the duty of the Grand
Magi to assist the Grand Cyclops and to obey all
orders of this officer; and to preside at all meetings
in the absence of the Grand Cyclops. The Grand
Magi of the first Den was Captain John B. Kennedy.

Grand Turk: It shall be the duty of the Grand
Turk to notify the Ghouls of all irregular meetings
of the Den, when so directed by the Grand Cyclops
or his substitute. It shall be his duty to meet and
question at the out-post all candidates for admission
to the Ku Klux Klan and he shall blindfold the can-

14 AUTHENTIC HISTORY

didate, administer the preliminary Oath, then to con-
duct such candidate to the Lictor, who in turn, takes
the candidate into the presence of the Grand Cyclops
for the final initiation. The Grand Turk of the first
Den was Major James It. Crowe.

Grand Scribe: It shall be the duty of the Grand
Scribe to take the orders of the Grand Cyclops, and
deliver them orally to the Lictors who will deliver
these orders to the Night Hawks to be taken to
officers of other Dens. It shall further be the duty
of the Scribe to keep a secret list of the members of
the Den, to call the roll at all meetings, and to investi-
gate the absence of members of the Ku Klux Klan.
The duty of the Night Hawks was to communicate
orally all orders given between Dens.

The Lictors were Mr. Richard R. Reed and Dr.
Frank Grant for the first Den.

During the entire period of the Ku Klux Klan's
existence, Carter Hill was the central seat of author-
ity, and one or more of the officers who assisted
General Nathan B. Forrest, were chosen from the
six men who originated the Ku Klux Klan. Captain
John C. Lester was the judicial officer, or Night
Hawk, who would administer the oath to new mem-
bers, and Mr. Calvin E. Jones, Night Hawk, who in-
vestigated the record of applicants.

The Ku Klux Klan had gradually realized that the
most powerful devices ever constructed for control-
ling the ignorant and superstitious negroes and car-
pet-bag politicians, were in their hands. Each day
some incident occurred to show the "amazing power

KU KLUX KLAN, 1865-1877 15

of the mysterious over the minds of all classes."
These circumstances convinced them that the meas-
ures inaugurated for sport only could be used to pro-
tect the lives and property of the people of the
stricken South.

By a "gentlemen's agreement" throughout the
South, no Ku Klux Klans were formed without the
consent and co-operation of the six founders who
originated the idea, at Pulaski, Tennessee.

At this time most of the eligible men in the town
of Pulaski had joined the Ku Klux Klan there, and
quite a number from Giles County. Requests were
made by these county members to form Klans in their
immediate neighborhoods, and while no provision had
been made for this expansion, permission was granted,
but the strictest injunctions were laid on these men as
regards secrecy, mystery, and the high character of
the men admitted.

The growth in the country districts was very rapid,
and the news that the Ku Klux Klan was growing in
numbers, created more sensation than the existence
of the Klan itself in Pulaski.

After the County was organized, parades were fre-
quent, and in their disguises, the Ku Klux Klan
would attend meetings being held by the "Carpet-
baggers" to incite the negroes and other evil-doers to
depredations, and they would circle around these
meetings without uttering a word and only making
signs, always carrying a torch to light the way which
afterwards led to the adoption of the Fiery Cross as
their symbol.

16 AUTHENTIC HISTORY

The first use of the torch to guide the way was by
the Pulaski Ku Klux Klan when they went to break
up a meeting of carpet-baggers being held in the
woods near the "Brick Church" in Giles County.
The carpet-baggers were telling the negroes to burn
the homes of their former masters and the land would
be divided among them.

One faithful negro man was passing this meeting
with a sack of meal on his mule taking it to his former
master, whom he had never left, and heard the carpet-
baggers call the name of his beloved "marster and
mistis" as among the victims to be burned alive in
their homes that night. He hurried home and told his
young master, who was then a member of the Ku
Klux Klan, what he had heard.

He left the old negro man to protect his father and
mother with the only gun that he had, and hastened to
Pulaski where he called together the Ku Klux Klan.

They rode into the meeting from every direction,
and so frightened both the negroes and carpet-bag-
gers that they did not stand "on the order of their
going," but fled in haste.

They heard of other meetings of like character and
spent the rest of the night breaking them up.

The next day many negroes who would not work
were found at the plantation gates, appealing for
work and protection.

Captain John Booker Kennedy, one of the six
originators of the Ku Klux Klan, was born Nov. 6,
1841, on the beautiful "Kennedy Farm," Wales,
Giles County, Tennessee. He was the eldest son of

KU KLUX KLAN, 1865-1877 17

John and Patsy Kennedy of distinguished Kentucky
lineage. When he was eight years of age his father
died and two years later his frail gentle mother passed
away, leaving her children to be reared by an aunt.

The father left a fine estate which was managed by
a guardian. Mr. Kennedy attended school in Pulaski
and Center College, Danville, Kentucky. Returning
from college in May 1861, he became a soldier of
the Southern Confederacy enlisting in Company A,
Third Tennessee.

He bore his part bravely in all the battles, hard-
ships and imprisonment his regiment endured in the
four years' struggle. His regiment was in the sur-
render of Fort Donelson, and after seven months im-
prisonment in Camp Douglas he was exchanged at
Vicksburg Sept. 16, 1862.

He was conspicuous for gallantry in several of the
many conflicts of the War, distinguishing himself by
undaunted courage and adherence to his high ideal
of duty. He was wounded three times. In February
1865, he was captured with a scouting party and kept
under guard until March 17, when he ran away from
the guards while they were shooting at him.

Traveling by night he made his way back to his
regiment. One night while making his way back he
ate supper with an old negro and his wife. He told
them he was a Confederate soldier and they directed
him how to avoid the Federals. He was in the last
battle of the Confederacy at Bentonville, N. C, and
was paroled at Greensboro, N. C.

18 AUTHENTIC HISTORY

Wrapping the bullet-torn, blood-stained flag under
his clothing he marched from Greensboro to his home
in Tennessee with his feet bleeding and torn, his shoes
having been worn out, where he gave the flag to Mrs.
Calvin H. Walker, widow of the Colonel of the Third
Tennessee, who was killed in the battle of Bentonville.
This historic flag draped the casket within which his
grey-clad form lay in its last sleep when he passed
away on February 13, 1913, which was a fitting trib-
ute from the family of Colonel Walker.

At the close of the Civil War Captain Kennedy
took a very important part in the rebuilding of his
desolated state. He was one of the original six Con-
federate soldiers who organized the famous Ku Klux
Klan in Pulaski, and helped to name this weird and
mystic Order, which proved the salvation of the
Southland in the dark hours of reconstruction and
he was the last of the original six to pass away.

He was married to Alice McClain of Lawrence-
burg, Tenn., who was the pride and joy of his young
manhood and the comfort and solace of his declining
years. They had one son, Joseph McClain Kennedy,
who became a brilliant physician and whose early
death was a crushing blow to his parents.

Captain Kennedy creditably held the office of-
Circuit Court Clerk of Lawrence County, Tenn., for
twenty-two years. For fourteen years he was Secre-
tary of Mimosa Lodge, F. and A. M. He was a
member of Frank Cheatham Bivouac, United Con-
federate Veterans, Nashville, Tenn. Mrs. Kennedy
is now residing in Lawrenceburg, Tenn.

KU KLUX KLAN, 1865-1877 19

Major James R. Crowe was one of the most dis-
tinguished men of the six who founded the Ku Klux
Klan. He was born January 29, 1838, in Pulaski,
Tenn., to which place he returned after the War and
for many years was a prominent factor in the busi-
ness and political life of Tennessee.

Naturally a leader, he held front rank in any body
of men to which it was his fortune to be thrown. He
was a Confederate soldier, having enlisted at Marion,
Ala., a few hours after Alabama seceded from the
Union, and was a member of Company G in the cele-
brated Fourth Alabama Regiment.

He was attending school at the Marion Military
Institute at that time. He was severely wounded in
the first battle of Manassas, and was taken to Char-
lottsville, Va., and later to his home in Pulaski where
he was expected to die. He was then discharged
from the army but would not accept. In November,
1861, he was appointed Drill Master as the Govern-
ment refused to accept him in the ranks on account of
his physical condition.

He was assigned to duty in the 53rd Tennessee
Regiment at Camp Weakley, Nashville. This regi-
ment was ordered to Fort Donelson, and he partici-
pated in that battle with his arm in a sling. Being
unable to load Private Charles Scoggins would load
and he would fire both guns. He afterwards walked
to Shiloh and participated in the second day's battle.
Retreating with the army to Corinth he was sent in
charge of hundreds of prisoners to Tuscaloosa,
Alabama.

20 AUTHENTIC HISTORY

In May, 1862, he was assigned to duty with the
35th Tennessee Infantry under Col. B. J. Hill. Col.
Hill ordered Captain Crowe's company of sharp-
shooters forward and said, "Crowe, deploy your men,
go to the right oblique, and unmask our regiment. I
want you to be the first man to reach the Shelton
House."

He obeyed the order to the letter and engaged the
enemy while the regiment came on rapidly behind.
Captain Crowe said that in all the battles in which he
was engaged he never knew such rapid and heavy fir-
ing; he lost more than half of his men. General
G. T. Beauregard issued a special order in tribute
to his regiment for gallantry on the field.

Captain Crowe surrendered in Memphis on June
16, 1865. No soldier in the service served longer than
he, as shown by the dates of his enlistment and sur-
render. He was Colonel on General Harrison's Staff
of Confederate Veterans and also Colonel on the staff
of all the Commanders in Chief (United Confederate
Veterans).

As a Mason, Major Crowe attained the rank of
Most Illustrious Grand Master of the Grand Council
of Tennessee, in 1886. He was a member of the
Cumberland Presbyterian Church and was active in
all its councils. Major Crowe removed from Pulaski
to Sheffield, Alabama, when that town was founded
in 1880, where he became a very progressive citizen
and acquired large interests.

His death occurred there on July 14, 1911, and
brought great sorrow to that community which held

KU KLUX KLAN, 1865-1877 21

him in the highest esteem. He was laid to rest in
Pulaski, Tenn., July 16, 1911, by his old comrades
with their impressive burial service. Major Crowe
was survived by his wife, three daughters, Mrs.
Charles J. Alleyn, Mrs. John W. Alleyn, Mrs. Lou
P. McFarland, and one son, James R. Crowe, Jr.,
who enlisted in the World War in 1917 and was killed
overseas in the Air Service in 1918.

Calvin E. Jones, one of the six original Ku Klux
Klan was a son of Judge Thomas M. Jones. He was
a lawyer, a member of the Episcopal Church. He
was Adjutant of the 32nd Tennessee Infantry, Con-
federate States Army.

Richard R. Reed, one of the original six Ku Klux
Klan, was a lawyer in Pulaski, Tennessee. He was
a member of the Third Tennessee Infantry. He was
a Presbyterian.

Frank O. McCord was Grand Cyclops of the orig-
inal Ku Klux Klan and was editor of the Pulaski
Citizen. He was a private soldier in the Confederate
States Army. He was a member of the Methodist
Church South.

General John C. Brown, of Pulaski, who was a
distinguished lawyer, was among the first members
of the original Ku Klux Klan, and was Grand Dragon
of the Realm of Tennessee. He was later Gov-
ernor of Tennessee. Dr. Frank Grant was the

22 AUTHENTIC HISTORY

seventh member of the original Ku Klux Klan, and
was surgeon of the Den.

SUMNER ARCHIBALD CUNNINGHAM

who was (Secret Service Courier) Grand Monk of
the Ku Klux Klan was born in Bedford County,
Tennessee, in 1843 and died in Nashville, December
20, 1913. He lost his father when quite young and was
reared on a farm by a splendid mother who was his
inspiration throughout life. He entered the Con-
federate States Army on November 4, 1861, as a pri-
vate in Company B, 41st Tennessee Regiment. He
was so small a boy that his rifle barrel had to be cut off
so that he could use it more freely. The first battle in
which he fought was Fort Donelson, (Tennessee)
where he was captured and put in prison at Camp
Morton, Indianapolis, Indiana, where he remained
several months before being exchanged at Vicksburg,
Mississippi, where he began fighting under General
Joseph E. Johnson. He was in many famous bat-
tles, but his most conspicuous bravery was at the
battle of Franklin, Tennessee, the "Balaklava of
America," where he was firing on the breastworks,
using guns being loaded for him by General Strahl
when he was killed ; and, at the battle of Nashville.

After the close of the Civil War, he edited the
Rural Sim at Nashville, Tennessee. He then boughl
and edited the Chattanooga Times, sold it and wenl
to Cartersville, Georgia, where he lost his beloved wif t
in 1879. She was Miss Laura Davis of Georgia,
son and daughter were born to them and Mary die<

KU KLUX KLAN, 1865-1877 23

in infancy, and Paul lived to magnificent manhood,
when he was drowned in the Rio Grande river, while
civil engineering for the United States government in
surveying the international boundary between the
United States and Mexico in 1901. This blow sad-
dened Colonel Cunningham's life but did not em-
bitter him. He never remarried and had no close
relatives except one sister, Mrs. Thomas W. Wake-
field of Cornersville, Tennessee, but he filled his
life with friends who, loving him, seemed to soften
his sorrow. It was said that Colonel Cunningham
knew personally and intimately more people than
any man in the country. "He was a Southerner;
he was a Confederate soldier; and then he was a
servant." These were the words spoken by his pas-
tor, Mr. Vance, at the time of his death. He said:
"I think that is the greatest thing the Bible says
about our Saviour, 'He made himself of no reputa-
tion and took upon him the form of a servant.' The
Christian ideal of greatness is servanthood. Colonel
Cunningham was a servant. He was anybody's
servant to whom he could render a service. He lived
his religion. He glorified in service for other people.
"If he passed an old woman on the street with
a heavy load, he got his arm under her bundle; and
I have known him on a wet day to take the overshoes
off his feet to give to an old and feeble, ragged woman
to protect her from the weather. You have seen him.
I have seen him; this was the way he lived. It was
the greatest thing about this man 'who lived in a

24 AUTHENTIC HISTORY

house by the side of the road and was a friend to

man.' "

In 1881 Colonel Cunningham went to New York
and founded a paper as an exponent of Southern
sentiment called Our Day but only edited it a few
years when he returned to Nashville. Later on, he
participated in the raising of funds for the erection
of a monument to President Jefferson Davis at
Richmond, Virginia, and in this work he traveled
all over the South and met thousands of Confederate
veterans and their families who were henceforth his
friends. He personally financed much of this work
and when his correspondence on this subject became
so great he could not handle it, he decided to print
a leaflet setting forth the object of his undertaking.
In this leaflet he distributed much information con-
cerning the records of the Confederacy and it seemed
to be a long-felt want that he had filled for the Con-
federate soldiers. He later decided to continue this
leaflet as a medium of communication between the
veterans of the South and extended it into a maga-
zine, the Confederate Veteran, which he edited
and owned until his death, and in his will he left this
organ to the Confederate Veterans, the Daughters
of the Confederacy, Sons of Confederate Veterans,
and Southern Memorial Association. He had two
supreme objects in life to which he consecrated the
Confederate Veteran; one was to stand for the "Oh
South" and to defend its cause against evil tongue!
and pens. He ruled the phrase the "New South'
out of his vocabulary and would not use it in the

KU KLUX KLAN, 1865-1877 25

Confederate Veteran. He belonged to the brave and
gentle "Old South'' for which Lee and Jackson,
Forrest, Gordon, Johnston, and the Morgans had
fought and for which thousands of the "flower and
chivalry" of the manhood of the South made the
supreme sacrifice. The second was to write the truth
of history of the War between the States. It was
with hope rather than with confidence that he
launched this enterprise, but he was inspired by the
fact that at that time so few Confederate soldiers,
even among the Southern leaders, had set down their
narratives for permanent preservation and that the
history of the "War between the States" was almost
altogether written by those on the Northern Side.
"Recognizing that there were two points of view, he
still deprecated the idea of the children and the fu-
ture generations of the South accepting without
question the views of writers on the Northern side.
Appreciating the efforts previously made to pre-
serve the truth as they saw it, he still had other
views than those carried out and entertained in
those publications, and believed that the true remedy
was the gathering up of the multifold experiences
and observations of the men who had fought in the
Southern army before these men had passed away,
leaving no eye witnesses of the events in which they
had taken part. Both North and South seemed in-
spired through Colonel Cunningham to present
views which were less biased and less offensively par-
tisan than the earlier books.

"The truth in all things set down," was the aim of

26 AUTHENTIC HISTORY

the Confederate Veteran, and through its influence
this became more the aim of the writers on both sides.
It was in the columns of the Confederate Veteran
that a large part of the wealth of heroic deed and
courageous achievement was first unearthed from
forgotten records and from dormant memories.

The historian of the future who wishes the truth
about the War between the States will be forced to
go to the columns of the Confederate Veteran for
it, for the truthful records of this war from which
the real history will have to be written can only be
found within its pages.

Col. Cunningham was a Southerner; he loved the
South; "the sunny sunny South." It was always
that to him. The South was his passion and he loved
it passionately with every fibre of his being. There
are some people who might not understand this kind
of devotion. They think it is narrow and sectional.
People outside of the South sometimes ask us why
we who live there have this kind of devotion to
it. It is because the South has suffered. It takes
suffering to feel devotion. The people there are
welded together in the furnace fires of suffering.
There is a kind of romantic devotion that gathers
about it like that of the tender mother for her stricken
child and each Southerner has made every effort to
preserve this romance.

Among the many beautiful tributes paid to Col-
onel Cunningham I quote the following from the
Tennessee Division, United Daughters of the Con-
federacy through its committee composed of Miss

KU KLUX KLAN, 1865-1877 27

Susie Gentry, Chairman, Mrs. W. T. Davis, Mrs.
John P. Hickman, Mrs. S. F. Wilson, Mrs. M. B.
Dozier, expressing its appreciation of the friendship
and interest ever shown by the editor of the Con-
federate Veteran in the work of the United Daugh-
ters of the Confederacy: "It was his mission to stand
for the truth in history; and he lived, fought and
died for it, faithful unto death. It was his pen
wielded unceasingly and potently for the truth and
right in the dark days of 'carpet-bag rule' and since
that largely brought the South into the estate that
she justly deserves. It was his gentle, kind heart
that welded the sections of North and South into a
truer brotherhood, and it was his generous, just mind
that in his last public act conceived and carried to
completion the bust of Col. Richard Owen, United
States Army, and placed it in the capitol of Indiana
as a token of esteem and honor to a conscientious
officer and tender-hearted man for the Confederate
prisoners of war. No other man is known to have done
a similar act in all the world and it is no wonder that
he is beloved by all who knew him 'when the fruit of
the spirit' so exhibited itself in goodness, gentleness
and loving-kindness and meekness."

It is difficult to conceive of a higher tribute
to courtesy and kindness than this act of erecting a
memorial to a Union soldier who had charge of a
prison for the Confederates at Camp Morton, In-
diana. The inscription under the bronze bust in the
State capitol there tells its own story:

28 AUTHENTIC HISTORY

"Colonel Richard Owen,

Commandant Camp Morton Prison, 1862.

Tribute by Confederate prisoners of war and their

friends for his courtesy and kindness."

Colonel Cunningham was a Christian; he was an
elder in the First Cumberland Presbyterian Church
in Nashville, Tennessee, but he had a kind of re-
ligion better than creed, the kind of religion that
overflows all life. He believed that "inasmuch as ye
have done it unto one of the least of these my breth-
ren, ye have done it unto me."

General Bennett H. Young, Commander in
Chief of the United Confederate Veterans, in his ad-
dress at the grave when Colonel Cunningham was
laid to rest on the hillside in Shelbyville, Tennessee,
beside his mother and children, said: "Out in the
darkness and gloom of a storm on the Aegean Sea,
when the waves were tossing a frail craft high in the
air and lightnings were flashing, showing how impo-
tent was man when fighting nature's forces, and
deep-toned thunderings were filling space with their
terrorizing voices, the sailor, looking up to heaven,
cried out, 'O Neptune, god of the sea, thou canst
save me if thou wilt; thou canst destroy me if thou
wilt; but I shall keep the rudder true.' 'He kept
the rudder true,' as he knew the right, he always
dared to do it. He fell with the drums beating and
the flags waving out on the firing line with no fear in
his heart. He was with General Patrick Cleburne
when he fell on the breastworks in the battle of

KU KLUX KLAN, 1865-1877 29

Franklin, who said with his last breath, 'Boys, I am
dying; fight it out, fight it out.' Our friend fought
it out and now he rests in peace."

Colonel Cunningham was a Ku Klux Klan Monk
of the "Invisible Empire," and in 1912 he told me
he was beginning to gather the facts of the Ku Klux
Klan for publication in the Confederate Veteran
and at that time give me much of the information
regarding the Ku Klux Klan contained in this his-
tory. He had previously introduced me to a number
of the leaders of the Ku Klux Klan, among them
Major Crowe, Captain Kennedy, of the original Ku
Klux Klan, General Clement A. Evans, and others
who were assisting him in accumulating this material.
He was one of the organizers of the Ku Klux Klan
in Georgia as he was there at that time and assisted
General John B. Gordon when he went to South
Carolina in 1877 to assist in seating the legally
elected officials there. General Gordon gave me this
fact for this history.

It is a matter of deep regret to all Southerners
that Colonel Cunningham's life was cut off before
he compiled the most romantic history of all time,
that of the "Invisible Empire," for to him was due
much of the success of this great movement in re-
deeming the South from carpet-bag and negro rule.
Major James R. Crowe informed me that to Colonel
Cunningham was entrusted the hazardous work of
the Ku Klux Klan in Washington, D. C. (1865-
1877) in obtaining secret information about the
spurious Ku Klux Klan, which was organized there

30 AUTHENTIC HISTORY

and in which were many of the radical Senators and
Congressmen. Colonel Cunningham said I could
make this statement in my history and that he had
never given this fact to any one and was not in a
position to do so until he was asked by Major Crowe
to assist me in gathering material for the "Authentic
History of the Ku Klux Klan," as there was an
"unwritten" law of the Ku Klux Klan that no in-
formation of this kind be published except by the
consent of the six originators.

Colonel Cunningham did more than any one else
to overcome all kinds of unjust prejudice between
the North and the South. One of his most conspicu-
ous acts in this regard was in assisting me at St.
Louis, Missouri, in 1904, at the Convention of the
United Daughters of the Confederacy in having jus-
tice done Mrs. Leonora Rogers Schuyler, wife of Dr.
Livingston Rowe Schuyler of New York City, who
was unfairly treated before the Convention when she
offered to establish a scholarship in Columbia Uni-
versity for the best paper on Southern history.
Mrs. Schuyler had gained permission to establish
in that leading college a prize scholarship for the
study of Southern History from the Southern view-
point, as a step towards bringing about a more com-
plete understanding by the country at large of the
truth of history as it was made in letters of blood
from 1861 to 1865. The motion was made, as fol-
lows: "That the United Daughters of the Confed-
eracy establish an annual scholarship of $100 to be
paid each year on December 1st for white students

KU KLUX KLAN, 1865-1877 31

only at Teachers' College, Columbia University,
New York City, for the best essay on subjects per-
taining to the South's part in the War between the
States, the United Daughters of the Confederacy
to appoint the Judges to examine these papers."
This motion carried at the first session with great en-
thusiasm but at the next session of the Convention
a delegate objected to the scholarship on the ground
that it would go to a college where it was necessary to
designate "for white students only." There was a
very heated discussion and Mrs. Schuyler was re-
quested to withdraw her motion. I wished to help
her, and conferred with Colonel Cunningham, who
always attended the Conventions of the United
Daughters of the Confederacy, and he suggested to
some of the delegates that they take Mrs. Schuyler's
part in the discussion and, after doing so, she con-
sented to postpone the subject for a future Conven-
tion but would not withdraw her motion. At the
next annual Convention of the United Daughters
of the Confederacy, in San Francisco, the motion
was amended as above and was carried. Mrs. Meade,
of Virginia, asked the privilege of seconding the mo-
tion, as her ancestor, Samuel Johnson, was the
founder and first president of Kings College, now
Columbia University. Great bitterness was engen-
dered over this scholarship, as there was a division
of sentiment among the women because of the neces-
sity of saying for "white students only." On another
occasion, when Colonel Cunningham was present, I
said to one of the delegates who first opposed this

32 AUTHENTIC HISTORY

scholarship at St. Louis that I hoped some day to see
Mrs. Schuyler President-General of the United
Daughters of the Confederacy; and great objection
was raised to this because she married a Northern
man and had spent most of her mature womanhood
in New York City. I said to these ladies that that
was a narrow and unpatriotic view to take of a
Daughter who was as much entitled as we were to
that distinction, her father having served both in the
Confederate Army and Confederate Congress.
Colonel Cunningham reasoned with these ladies, with
whom he had great influence, and congratulated me
on the stand I had taken, and I replied to him that I
would be glad if he would give me space in the Con-
federate Veteran, with the view of overcoming such
prejudice, which he did, allowing me to publish
Mrs. Schuyler's biography and picture, October,
1906 {Confederate Veteran), and for many years
we worked together with the end in view of hav-
ing this beautiful and graceful Southern woman,
Mrs. Livingstone Rowe Schuyler, elected Presi-
dent-General of the National Order, and she was
elected unanimously at the annual Convention in
St. Louis, in 1921. Her first work for the United
Daughters of the Confederacy was the establish-
ment at Columbia University of this prize scholar-
ship, and it was the beginning of the educational
work which is today one of the most important
branches of the activities of the United Daughters
of the Confederacy, and we are indebted to Colonel
Cunningham for this and many instances of break-

KU KLUX KLAN, 1865-1877 33

ing down prejudice against Southern women who
had married Northern men, though it was not un-
founded on the part of the splendid women who
remained at the South, suffered all hardships, and
built up the organization, known as the United
Daughters of the Confederacy, and aided the Ku
Klux Klan, for, they were sincere in the belief that at
some crisis in our history a Southern woman who was
married to a Northern man would not be in position
to serve the United Daughters of the Confederacy
without differing in opinion with her Northern hus-
band. The gentle spirit of Colonel Cunningham was
at all times at work on the minds of both the United
Daughters of the Confederacy and the Confederate
Veterans, to aid them in establishing a magnanimous
attitude towards all Northerners, and I feel grateful
to him for his untiring effort in behalf of Mrs. Liv-
ingston Howe Schuyler's claim to the office of
President- General of the United Daughters of the
Confederacy, which position she now holds, and who
is the first woman to have the distinction of holding
this office while residing outside of the Southern
States.

Colonel Cunningham collected a part of the money
through the Confederate Veteran for the erection of
the Sam Davis monument in Nashville, Tennessee,
1909, on Capitol Hill, superintended its erection, and
was instrumental in the introduction of Sam Davis
Day in the patriotic calendar of that State. Only a
few times in human history has such a hero as Sam
Davis crossed the horizon of fame, and one of the

34 AUTHENTIC HISTORY

most notable works of Colonel Cunningham was
rescuing the name of Tennessee's boy hero from
oblivion. Colonel Cunningham exemplified in his life
the sentiment, "The bravest are the tenderest; the
loving are the daring." He was doubtless the most
widely known man in private life, and many distin-
guished men and women were his friends. The story
of Sam Davis's sublime sacrifice and loyalty to duty
will be just as bright and splendid at the end of thou-
sands of years as it is today. It should be a great
uplift to the men and women of all ages to have had
such a hero in human form; the young Confederate
soldier who was hanged because he would not betray
his comrade, and who said: "I would rather die a
thousand times than betray a friend." Sam Davis was
a native of Pulaski, Tennessee, where the Ku Klux
Klan originated, and where his body rests, after
having been executed there, and this tragedy was
one of the contributing causes of the Ku Klux Klan
turning their social club into regulators, for it was
ever present in the minds of some of them how nar-
rowly Major James R. Crowe, who was tried with
Sam Davis, as a spy, came to being hanged with him.
He was one of the six men who originated the Ku
Klux Klan. A monument, erected in 1906, now
stands in the Court House yard of Pulaski, Ten-
nessee, to Sam Davis.

III.

ALABAMA.
ATHENS KU KLUX KLAN ORGANIZED.

The first Ku Klux Klan formed in Alabama was
at Athens, Limestone County, which adjoins Giles
County, Tennessee, where the Ku Klux Klan had
originated, and was succeeding in controlling the
negroes and carpet-baggers to a great extent.

In February 1866, Captain John C. Lester, of the
Pulaski Ku Klux Klan was visiting Athens, Ala-
bama, and in conversation with Colonel Lawrence
Ripley Davis of Limestone County, was asked about
the Ku Klux Klan as its activities had reached the
ears of Alabama men.

Captain Lester did not then admit that he was a
member of the Ku Klux Klan, but said he had heard
that conditions had become much better in Giles
County since the advent of a club known by that
name; and that many idle negoes who had been sup-
ported by the Freedmen's Bureau were now willing
and anxious to work.

Colonel Davis remarked to Captain Lester that
Athens needed assistance and he would be glad if he
would find out more about it, and invite the Ku Klux
Klan to help them.

Captain Lester returned to Pulaski and obtained

36 AUTHENTIC HISTORY

permission to organize a Ku Klux Klan at Athens, as
Colonel Davis had applied for membership.

The immediate necessity for regulation at Athens
had grown out of the fact that the idea of social
equality between the whites and negroes had been
suddenly raised there by white women who had been
sent from the North to teach the negroes.

One of these white women was seen driving with a
negro man on a footing of perfect equality, and it
aroused the thinking men to consider that steps
should be taken to maintain their determination that
there should never be any social equality between the
races in the South.

Suffrage had been denied the men of the seceding
states by the Government at Washington, so legisla-
tive power to control this was not possible. The
negro men were enfranchised and the state offices
were filled with them and carpet-baggers who were
"the scum that had been thrown to the surface in the
great Civil War upheaval and which had settled upon
the South."

This condition rankled in the hearts of the proud
Southerners and it was therefore natural that they
should turn to the source of relief of which they had
heard only meagre details, the Ku Klux Klan, which
had to some extent assisted the people of Tennessee.

Captain John C. Lester returned to Athens with
permission to administer the Oath of the Ku Klux
Klan to Col. L. It. Davis and with permission to call
a meeting and initiate members. Frank O. McCord,
Grand Cyclops of the Pulaski Ku Klux Klan, came

KU KLUX KLAN, 1865-1877 37

to this meeting which was held at "The Cove," three
miles from Athens.

The first officers of the Athens, Ala., Ku Klux
Klan (No. 2) were Grand Cyclops Dr. Nicholas D.
Richardson; and the others, Robert A. McClellan,
Robert Donnell, Fortunatus Wood, Paul L. Jones,
John B. Floyd, T. J. Cox, Robert Beatty Mason,
William Richardson, James B. Richardson, W. R.
Pryor, William Cass Nichols, Thomas Carter,
Henry J. Pepin and Edwin R. Richardson.

At this meeting at "The Cove" they discussed
"white supremacy" and decided they would make it
the chief business of the Ku Klux Klan.

A week later the Athens Ku Klux Klan held
another meeting at "The Cove" and initiated hun-
dreds of members who were incensed at the bold
attempt of this white woman from the North to
associate openly with negro men, thus offending the
Southern people in their helplessness to legislate
against such an evil condition.

"The Cove," the chosen spot for the meetings of
the Ku Klux Klan, was a natural amphitheatre, then
studded with thick pines which concealed it from the
highway, in the center of which there is a deep, ice-
cold spring. It was decided that they would take the
negro man who had been associating with this white
woman, to that spot, and inform him that such con-
duct should never occur again.

The negro, having been educated by his former
master, was shrewd and intelligent, and said to the Ku
Klux Klan that he was only obeying the white woman

38 AUTHENTIC HISTORY

when he hired the "buggy" and took her to ride
through the streets of Athens, and said that if they
would not send him on to the other world from which
their spirits had returned, "so help me God, I will
never be seen riding with a white lady again" — and
that he would tell all the negroes that they must give
up the idea of social equality in the South, which was
being taught them by these white women of the North
who had been sent there ostensibly as missionaries and
teachers for the negroes.

The Ku Klux Klan then "baptised" him in the ice-
cold spring, in the faith of "white supremacy" and
sent him home through the darkness, shivering and
cold ; and that he was a man of his word is proved by
the fact that he convinced the teachers from the North
that the idea of social equality must be eliminated
from the minds of the negroes there forever.

It was at this meeting that the Ku Klux Klan
formulated the policy of "white supremacy" in the
South as the work to be done by the Ku Klux Klan
and they determined that social and political equality
of the races should never be established in the South-
ern states. Knowing as they did that the Radicals in-
tended by enfranchising the negroes, and disfranchis-
ing the white men, to secure control of the govern-
ment of the Southern states and meant to upholc
negro suffrage by military rule — "the Ku Klux Klai
caused this scheme to fail completely."
^ Another necessity for regulation by the Ku Klu:
Klan at Athens grew out of the rumor that the mili-
tary authorities controlling Alabama, had determinec

KU KLUX KLAN, 1865-1877 39

to force the white citizens of Athens to send their chil-
dren to a school which had been opened in the Baptist
Church for the negroes, and was being taught by the
above-mentioned white woman, who advocated social
equality of the races, and who had said that the white
children would be forced by bayonet rule to attend
this school.

A military order to this effect had been contem-
plated by the commanding officer of the United
States forces in that district, but through the efforts
of Mrs. Childs, a northern woman, who was at that
time, principal of the Athens Female Institute, this
order was never issued.

Mrs. Childs had been at the head of this Institute
for many years before the Civil War, it having been
the second chartered college for women in the world
(1843) ; and, she had raised it to a high standard of
efficiency and was highly honored and much beloved
by the thousands of Southern women who had gradu-
ated from this school and returned to their homes
throughout the South to become the leaders of thought
in their communities.

During the Civil War, when the Fair Ground's
buildings, the Court House, and other public build-
ings were destroyed by fire by the Federal soldiers,
Mrs. Childs appealed to them as a Northern woman
to spare the handsome school building of the Athens
Female Institute, and it is still one of the most beau-
tiful school buildings for young women in the United
States.

Many buildings have been added on the campus,

40 AUTHENTIC HISTORY

but the original building has been carefully preserved
as it was when she was its dignified principal. The
Ku Klux Klan guarded the Female Institute, deter-
mined that negroes should not be admitted, as the
Military Commander had threatened to do.

The destruction of the public buildings at Athens
was responsible for the holding of the meetings of
the Ku Klux Klan in the open during the summer of
1866, and during the winter they began building bon-
fires for warmth, which led to many open-air demon-
strations and rendered them more ghostly in appear-
ance ; being seen from a distance by negroes it caused
their "nocturnal perambulations" to cease.

So once more, necessity which knows no law led to
correcting one of the worst habits of the restless
negroes who had been freed and had the idea that
freedom meant license. Many of the older negroes
were using their judgment and trying to assist in
every way, the white people, to control the younger
negroes who were a menace to all communities by
their petty depredations and irresponsibility, though
they were often led by mean white men whose own
lawless deeds they hoped might be credited to the
negroes.

The administration of civil law was only partially
re-established in the South, after the War; the States
were under arbitrary military rule, the carpet-baggers
and negroes had been placed in the offices of both state
and county, the white men of the South were pro-
hibited from holding either state or national offices,
and these conditions gave every incentive for the

KU KLUX KLAN, 1865-1877 41

growth and power of the Ku Klux Klan, which at
that time was the only hope of the people of the South.
The Ku Klux Klan was taking on new features not
at first remotely contemplated by the Order — features
which finally transformed the Ku Klux Klan into
the world's greatest Regulators.

This rapid growth of the Ku Klux Klan led to
closer affiliation and the Ku Klux Klans already
formed felt the need of a leader sufficiently skilled to
direct and control this vast body of men who were
banded together to reconstruct the Southern states,
which was not being fairly done by the government
at Washington.

In April 1867 the Grand Cyclops, Frank O.
McCord, and the five other founders of the Pulaski
Klan realizing the need of a leader and of further
expansion for the Ku Klux Klan, with the object in
view of "White Supremacy" in the Southern states,
sent an order for all the Klans to appoint delegates
to meet in Nashville, Tennessee, in May 1867, to fur-
ther the interests of the South, then so much in need
of some power to improve the prevailing conditions.
The following incident is one of many which caused
the Ku Klux Klan to change the "social club"
which was their first intention, into a protective
organization.

Three miles from Athens, a Confederate soldier,
Mr. Ed. Tanner, who had been honorably discharged
from the Confederate States Army some time before
the surrender, because of ill-health, was called to his
door, late one night, dragged into the highway, and

42 AUTHENTIC HISTORY

shot by negro soldiers, and his body pinned to the
ground by a sharpened fence-rail, so the negro sol-
diers might ride over it.

This occurred on a beautiful moonlight night and
in full view of the window where his wife, who had
just given birth to a son a few hours before, was in
bed. The physician, Dr. Nicholas Davis Richardson,
who had attended the young mother, sent a faithful
negro man who had been a former slave of the family,
to Athens, to notify the Ku Klux Klan to come to this
home for the purpose of capturing these murderers.

The plantation bells, which were a part of the
equipment used for ringing at the noon hour, had
been adopted by the Ku Klux Klan as signals of
danger. Dr. Richardson rang the bell and each
plantation took up the signal until the country had
been notified.

I was a small girl at that time in the home of my
father, Colonel Lawrence Ripley Davis, whose
plantation was on the extreme eastern limit of Lime-
stone County. I was awakened in one of the upper
bed-rooms by the ringing of the farm bell which stood
in its high framework on the lawn. I ran down into
the bed-room of my mother just in time to see my
father, dressed in the Ku Klux regalia, leaning over
her to kiss her good bye.

I had never seen him in his regalia before, and it
frightened me ; he took me in his arms and kissed me
good-bye, and told me he was only masquerading and
playing "dress up," for fun. I went to the window,
and looking out was indelibly impressed by seeing

KU KLUX KLAN, 1865-1877 4S

my father's horse, in its trappings of disguise, being
held for him by a faithful negro man, Antony, who
never left the family until his death a few years ago,
and who has retold this episode to me many times.

I watched my father out of the gate-way on this
bright moonlight night and saw many hundreds of
the Ku Klux Klan in their white robes, filing over the
hill to join him, and follow the signaling bell towards
Athens, and on to the home where the fiendish deed
had been done.

The negro soldiers who had murdered Mr. Tanner,
were pursued by the Ku Klux Klan to the Tennessee
River, ten miles away, and were almost overtaken at
Decatur, where they made an effort after dismount-
ing, to cross the railroad on foot. They encountered
an incoming train and jumped from the bridge into
the river, where some of them escaped to the opposite
shore, while several of them were drowned.

The murder of Mr. Tanner and other outrages
by the negro soldiers was the means of strengthening
the Ku Klux Klan in their determination to press on
towards some form of relief from such outrages, and
caused the augmenting of their numbers by many
thousands.

The night's display of their numbers when they
were attempting to arrest the murderers of Mr. Tan-
ner proved salutary for Limestone County. The
Union League, the Radical Order, which was giving
much trouble, changed its severity, and, through fear
of the Ku Klux Klan after their display on that
memorable night, caused the negroes to make mor©

44 AUTHENTIC HISTORY

progress in the next few months in needed lessons of
self-control and industry, than they would have done
in as many years.

Another cause of the Ku Klux Klan's growth was
falsehoods told by J. W. Alvord, Inspector of
Schools and Finances, Freedmen's Bureau, who when
asked by the Congressional Committee on Recon-
struction, what was the general feeling towards the
government of the United States said: "It is hostile,
it seems to me, in the great majority of the southern
people, I mean that part of them who were in the
rebellion.

"There is evidently no regret for the rebellion, but
rather a defense of it. They everywhere defend the
principles on which the rebellion was commenced.
They seem to think that peace was brought about by
an arrangement which allowed them the equal condi-
tion of belligerents and in possession of all they had
previously of government privileges; and, that they
shall be admitted as states into the Union, and they
complained bitterly of the treatment they are receiv-
ing in being kept out."

When Mr. Alvord was asked by the Committee:
"What great object do they seem to contemplate in
their being readmitted into Congress by their repre-
sentatives?" he said: "They supposed that by read-
mission they could get political power and obtain
again the supremacy which they once had, and, with
the exception of slavery, they expect to be still a
prosperous and dominant portion of our govern-
ment." When asked if the southern people had the

KU KLUX KLAN, 1865-1877 45

power, would they put the negroes back into slavery,
he answered: "They would/'

He said, "Everywhere the negroes were refused the
privilege of buying land and of claiming their rights
as free men." Mr. Alvord went all over the South
stirring up strife among the races. He was at Athens,
Alabama, and founded the negro school in the Bap-
tist church and tried to force the white people to send
their children to school with the negroes.

He said to this Committee: "All sorts of evil is
predicted by the white people if negroes have learn-
ing, and the 'poor whites' hate the idea of the negroes
being able to read and write when they can not.
Much fraud has been practiced on the negroes by
their old masters." A greater falsehood was never
stated by any one.

General James H. Clanton of Montgomery was
the first Grand Dragon of the Realm of Alabama Ku
Klux Klan, and continued in this capacity until his
death, when General John T. Morgan was elected in
his place, and served until 1876. The Ku Klux Klan
in 1877 was led by General Edmund W. Pettus as
Grand Dragon of the Realm.

General Morgan was elected to the United States
Senate by the Ku Klux Klan in 1876, and served
until his death in 1907.

In 1867 Bishop Richard H. Wilmer, who was a
close friend of General Morgan, the Second Dragon
of the Realm of Alabama, went to England and
there he saw Judah P. Benjamin who had been a
member of the Confederate States Cabinet.

46 AUTHENTIC HISTORY

Among other things he told him of the Ku Klux
Klan and the power it was exerting, and the necessity
for keeping up the ghostly idea that the negroes might
be controlled, and told him of the scarcity of suit-
able dry-goods and horses for the use of the Ku Klux
Klan. "

Mr. Benjamin's interest in the Ku Klux Klan was
so aroused that he borrowed money and gave it to
Bishop Wilmer to buy horses, saddles, fire-arms, and
other necessities for the Ku Klux Klan.

Several years after the work of the Ku Klux Klan
had been completed, a fund was raised by the women
of the South, by festivals, oyster-suppers, charades
and other entertainments, that this money might be
returned to Mr. Benjamin. I helped to raise this
money.

Mr. Judah P. Benjamin was a Jew, born in 1812
on one of the British West India Islands while his
parents were on their way to the United States. He
attended Yale College. He was a lawyer in New
Orleans, La., when he was elected to the United
States Senate, where Mr. Jefferson Davis met him
and of whom he said "Mr. Benjamin had very high
reputation as a lawyer and my acquaintance with him
in the Senate impressed me with the lucidity of his
intellect, his systematic habits, and capacity for labor.
He was, therefore, invited to the post of Attorney
General in the cabinet of the Confederate States of
America.' ' He was later made Secretary of War,
then Secretary of State — and served to the end of the
Confederacy, and was with Jefferson Davis when

KU KLUX KLAN, 1865-1877 47

they crossed the Savannah River, after the night
march from Abbeville, S. C, after the fall of the Con-
federacy. Mr. Benjamin escaped after leaving Mr.
Davis and went to Bermuda and then to England.
He became a Queen's Counsel in London and was
highly esteemed as an English barrister. Mr. Burton
N. Harrison who was with Jefferson Davis when he
was captured said it was best for the Confederacy and
Mr. Davis that he did not escape with Mr. Benjamin,
as having been a prisoner of the United States Gov-
ernment, and the fact that he was never brought to
trial on any of the charges was sufficient vindication.
Mr. Benjamin became very wealthy in England and
Mrs. Jefferson Davis told me that he often sent her
money to relieve the needy among his friends in the
United States, as well as the assistance rendered the
Ku Klux Klan, as the South had been plundered so
as to render this help necessary; for the South was
being financially ruined by the frauds perpetrated by
the United States Treasury Department in their
efforts to sell all the property subject to seizure under
the Confiscation Acts of Congress; cotton was con-
fiscated and a commission of 25% was paid the
agents. The Ku Klux Klan Minority Report of the
subcommittee on "Affairs in the Late Insurrectionary
States" stated that three million bales of cotton were
confiscated, and that the government received only
114,000 bales.

The United States government not only confiscated
all cotton raised by the women of the South with the
help of the still faithful negroes after the close of the

48 AUTHENTIC HISTORY

Civil War, when most of the men had come home sick
and exhausted from the battlefields, but they con-
fiscated mules, wagons, farming implements and
even the small quantities of foods they had been able
to store for themselves.

This so embittered the women that they held noth-
ing but contempt for the government at Washington,
and while the men tried to keep their part of the con-
tract embodied in their paroles, the women were will-
ing for them to go back to war rather than submit to
this condition. So the women hailed the Ku Klux
Klan as they would have done the army as a source
of protection to them.

The women took the clothes off of their backs and
the sheets off of their beds to make the ghostly re-
galia for the Ku Klux Klan. There were no stocks of
goods in the South as the merchants had no credit or
money, and when all the white material available was
used, the women converted their "Dolly Varden" and
other bright colored calico into costumes for them.

At this time the Alabama Ku Klux Klan spread
very rapidly, but the headquarters was always kept at
Athens.

It is important to note here that Alabama, in its
own sovereignty, had abolished slavery within its bor-
ders, and General James H. Clanton, who was the
wise and fearless leader of the Democratic Party,
from its reorganization after the war, until the day of
his death, advocated this measure of the abolition of
slavery.

Under the authority of the convention that adopted

KU KLUX KLAN, 1865-1877 49

this measure, an election was held on Nov. 20, 1865,
and ratified the amendments to the Constitution of
the United States, excepting the 14th, which deprived
vast numbers of the Southerners of the right of citi-
zenship.

The Legislature rejected the 14th Amendment for
the Southern people considered this suicide. The
Federal government was duly notified of the pro-
ceedings and Governor Parsons, who was head of the
provisional government of Alabama, received a let-
ter from Secretary of State Seward, which said :

"In the judgment of the president, the time had
arrived when the care and the conduct of the affairs
of Alabama could be remitted to the Constitutional
authorities chosen by the people thereof without dan-
ger to the peace and safety of the United States,"
and directions were given to Governor Parsons to
transfer to the Governor of Alabama elected by the
people all papers and property in his hands.

On Dec. 10th, 1865, Robert N". Patton was inaug-
urated Governor.

Governor Parsons was a native of New York but
had long been a resident of Talladega, Ala. He was
a Whig and a Union man, and a man of fine per-
sonality and much dignity of character. As evidence
of the confidence the people had in him, they elected
former Governor Parsons United States Senator, for
the term ending March 3, 1871.

The same legislature elected George S. Houston for
the term ending 1867 and John A. Winston for the
term of six years commencing March 4, 1867. At

50 AUTHENTIC HISTORY

the election in November, 1865, C. C. Langdon was
elected to Congress from the first district, the second
George C. Freeman, the third Cullen A. Battle, the
fourth, J. W. Taylor, the fifth, Burwell T. Pope, and
from the sixth, Thomas J. Foster. Then came the
terrific shock which convulsed the South for these
chosen men were not permitted to take their seats in
Congress and the State was not represented until
1868.

A military commander was appointed and directed
to institute military tribunals instead of judicial, with
the power to inflict unusual punishments, excepting
only death. He was given the power to displace any
official and appoint his successor, but this same act
provided that military rule should cease when a con-
vention of the people thereof should frame, and the
voters adopt a constitution ratifying the amendment
to the Federal constitution which conferred suffrage
on the negroes.

The new constitution was to be framed by delegates
to be chosen by the votes of all citizens of legal age
excepting those disfranchised by the 14th Amend-
ment, and it was to be ratified by a majority of voters
registered by the military commander. Under the
Reconstruction Act of 1867, Alabama became a part
of the military district comprising itself and the States
of Georgia and Florida.

The military commander called a convention to
frame the constitution. When the election was held
the polls were kept open five days, but the white men
refused to vote. This gathering of men was stig-

KU KLUX KLAN, 1865-1877 51

matized as the "carpet-baggers" convention, as the
men who composed it were corrupt and ignorant, and
not even citizens of the state of Alabama.

Samuel Hale, a brother of Senator Hale, one of
the few Union men and Republicans in Sumpter
County, Ala., said: "So far as I am acquainted with
them, they are worthless vagabonds, homeless, house-
less, drunken knaves." Mr. Hale said, "this election
was as shameless a fraud as was ever perpetrated
upon the face of the earth."

After four years of warfare the difficulties of the
Southerners were appalling.

Cotton was one of the principal resources left to the
people after the war. It was in great demand at high
prices, and would have saved the people of the South
from bankruptcy, but an unconstitutional tax of 3
cents a pound was placed on it, and then 2% cents.
At the close of the war there were five million bales
of cotton stored in the South which would have been
worth in Liverpool five hundred million dollars.

Only a small part of this cotton was owned by the
Confederate States government, and that part of it
was turned over to General E. R. S. Camby, U. S. A.,
by General E. Kirby Smith, C. S. A., on May 24,
1865. Then came a swarm of spies and agents sent
by the Treasury Department and the seizure of
cotton was indiscriminate; and when private owner-
ship was proven, a toll was exacted before it was
released.

The Treasury Department ordered all the cotton
from the Gulf States shipped to Simeon Draper,

52 AUTHENTIC HISTORY

United States Cotton Agent in New York City; and
that seized west of the Mississippi River, in Alabama
and Georgia, to William T. Mellen, Cincinnati.
"Simeon Draper, when he became cotton agent was
a bankrupt, and he died a multi-millionaire."

Those who have advocated the refunding of this tax
on raw cotton collected by the United States govern-
ment after the Civil War was over from 1865 to 1868,
were, all the Southern members of Congress of both
parties, State Legislatures who sent memorials, dis-
tinguished citizens, commercial bodies, and eminent
counsel, whose arguments were that the tax was not
uniform ; because, it was imposed without the consent
of the Southern people, and when they were wholly
unrepresented in Congress; and, because, the men
who raised cotton paid the same taxes that others paid,
and then this extra tax on cotton which caused many
of them to sell their plantations in desperation.

This tax was 2% to 3 cents per pound from
1866 to 1868, and the law exempting the cotton from
taxation was passed March 3, 1868. Of this illegal
tax, Alabama paid $10,388,072.10, Georgia paid $11,-
897,094.98, Louisiana $10,098,501.00, and the other
states paid less than this. There were sixteen states,
some of them Western and Northern states which
were included in this unjust tax, because they had
bought the cotton, and had taken it to these states
before the law was passed.

Senator Lee Overman of North Carolina, and other
Senators and Representatives from the South, have
introduced many bills in Congress for the restoration

KU KLUX KLAN, 1865-1877 53

of this cotton tax to the men who owned it, or to their
heirs. There have been test cases made before the
Supreme Court which were decided adversely to the
rightful owners of this cotton in question, and at pres-
ent efforts are being made to recover this sum which
is $68,072,388.99.

"Confiscation is a method by which a conquerer robs
his foes and rewards his friends. All confiscation is
robbery." These words were used by Hon. John W.
Chandler in reply to Mr. Thaddeus Stevens on his
arguments in the House of Representatives on the
Southern Confiscation Bill under which so many ille-
gal acts were performed and which caused the Secre-
tary of the Treasuiy in 1866 to say of the South,
"Even in their deplorable condition, more than two-
thirds of our exports last year consisted of their
products and it is the crop of the present year, 1867,
small though it is, that is to save us from ruinous in*
debtedness to Europe." But Congress would not
listen to his appeal to repeal the law.

At this time the New York Chamber of Commerce
memorialized Congress against this unjust tax on
raw cotton, and said "taxation without representa-
tion is tyranny, that the cotton tax was a violation of
the Constitution and, that the proposed increase to 5
cents a pound by Congress, lacked an impartiality
which was calculated to provoke hostility at the
South, and to excite in all honest minds of the North,
that such a purpose should not prevail.

"A discriminating tax which tends to make the rich
at the North richer, and the poor at the South poorer

54 AUTHENTIC HISTORY

operates as a discouragement to those who with heavy-
hearts but honest endeavor strive to regain their lost
fortunes.

"If it be true that when one member suffers all the
members suffer, the committee appointed to make this
memorial would urge a more moderate tax than now
proposed, not in the interest of the South alone but
for the common good of all the states in the Union."

Many people in the South who were the victims of
this tyranny "taxation without representation" still
hope that the United States Government will yet re-
fund this illegal tax.

Fifty million dollars worth of cotton was shipped
to Simeon Draper, and the United States government
only got fifteen million of it. Thus the Southern
people were impoverished and their property turned
over to these unscrupulous scoundrels.

One duty of the Ku Klux Klan for many years was
to build gins in the dense forests, haul the cotton there,
gin it, hide it and guard it. Had it not been for
the Ku Klux Klan who saved what cotton they could
secretly, the people would have died of starvation.

Another cause of irritation which caused collisions
in Alabama was the offensive conduct of the Federal
soldiers in the garrisons. In Tuscaloosa, Greensboro
and Eutaw and many other towns throughout the
state, they were insulting to the former soldiers of the
Confederacy, United States flags were stretched
across the streets so pedestrians would have to pass
under them, especially the women.

As a result of these occurrences the Ku Klux Klan

KU KLUX KLAN, 1865-1877 55

was organized in Greensboro and the members were
to assemble at the ringing of a certain bell. The
soldiers attempted once to force a woman in Tusca-
loosa to walk under the flag and Ryland Randolph
seized a sabre and challenged the commander to mor-
tal combat. The officer refused to fight and never
repeated this insult again.

To resume the subject of the election on the con-
stitution it is well to comment on the perfidy of Con-
gress of imposing upon the people of Alabama in
violation of its own solemn covenant, a constitution
which they had rejected in a lawful manner.

The fact that the government imposed the same
penalty on men who had opposed with all their abili-
ties the severance of Alabama from the Union, em-
bittered men who had been Whigs and would perhaps
have preferred the Republican Party had they not
been driven towards the Democratic Party.

There were thousands of men in Alabama who be-
lieved that the Democrats had precipitated secession
without permitting the people to 'vote on the ordi-
nance. They believed with Colonel Nicholas Davis,
who wrote the amendment to the secession ordinance to
submit it to the people, that had this been done, seces-
sion would have been defeated. Northern Alabama
was so loyal to the Union that it even thought of sep-
arating that section from the remainder of the State
and fighting it out on its own lines.

But when Fort Sumpter was threatened these same
men fought with the Confederate forces. In Ala-
bama there were many men who were Whigs and

56 AUTHENTIC HISTORY

Union men who had no liking for the Democratic
Party; but they saw nothing but a perpetuation of
negro supremacy in Alabama, should Republican
leaders be allowed there.

Alabama elected Governor R. B. Lindsay who had
defeated W. R. Smith. Governor Lindsay demanded
the seal and papers of the state and Smith refused to
deliver them. A trial was set for three o'clock in the
afternoon and Governor Smith was ordered to appear
in person in the court and show why he refused to
deliver the property.

Governor Smith was informed by General Edmund
W. Pettus, who was on that day leading the Ku Klux
Klan for General Morgan, that every town in the
state was sending its Ku Klux Klan to Montgomery,
that every available locomotive in the state had been
requisitioned, and that the Ku Klux Klan was en-
trained and side-tracked at every station along every
railroad.

The court-room was already crowded with strange
men, which caused much excitement and Governor
Smith did not like their appearance there. He did
not relish the idea of coming before that formidable
audience, "contesting the right of the people's repre-
sentatives to assume the offices to which they had
elected them." So he held a conference with Genera]
Pettus and told him he would yield and therefore
turn the papers of the state over to Governor
Lindsay.

In 1876 when Governor George S. Houston was
re-elected, his home being at Athens, the Ku Klux

KU KLUX KLAN, 1865-1877 57

Klan had a great torchlight parade in celebration, of
the redeemed South, as well as Alabama.

The Court House had just been completed, after
having been burned during the war by Federal
soldiers, and Captain William Richardson was asked
to raise the "Stars and Stripes" for the first time
since he took that flag down in 1861, when he went
with his State, after secession.

He had been crippled by a wound in a limb at the
battle of Chickamauga and his two brothers took the
flag, and unfurled it to the breeze from the cupola —
and when Edwin R. Richardson and James B. Rich-
ardson were seen with the flag, a great cheer went up
for Captain Richardson.

Captain John Buchanan Floyd, a Lictor of the Ku
Klux Klan of Athens, Alabama, was born at the fam-
ily home, Brookfield, near Lynchburg, Va., April 28,
1838. He was educated in private schools of Lynch-
burg and the Virginia Military Institute. He was on
a visit to North Alabama when Virginia seceded. He
joined the Confederate States army and was elected
lieutenant. He was promoted to Captain in
Wheeler's command. After the War he returned to
Alabama to look after lands he had there and found
the most desolate conditions.

In December 1867, he married Frances Maria
Harris, daughter of Major John R. Harris of Lime-
stone County. On the maternal side of them both
they were the descendants of Orlando Jones (1687-
1719), a celebrated Colonial lawyer of Virginia who
was a son of Rev. Roland Jones (1640-1688) who

58 AUTHENTIC HISTORY

was the first rector of Bruton Parish Church at Wil-
liamsburg, Virginia, which was the Colonial capitol of
Virginia.

Many prominent people of the South are descended
from the two grand-daughters of Orlando Jones.
The eldest, Martha Dandridge, married first Colonel
Custis, and second General George Washington.

The other grand-daughter, Frances Barbour Jones,
married Captain John Jones (no relation of hers),
who was a gallant officer in the "Light Brigade" of
Harry Lee, father of Robert E. Lee; and was the
great-grandmother of John Buchanan Floyd, and
Frances Maria Harris, who married each other.

The children of Captain and Mrs. John B. Floyd
are as follows: Elizabeth Harris Floyd, married Ed-
ward Fletcher of Madison, Ala., and died leaving one
son; Annie West Floyd married William Harvey
Gillespie, a son of C. M. Gillespie, who was a Ku
Klux Klansman. Schuyler Harris Floyd married
Mittie Sherrod. He lives in Birmingham, Ala. ; and
also Mrs. Gillespie ; Ellen Stith Floyd married John
Hurtzler. She is a widow and lives in Birmingham.
Ida Isabel Floyd married Thomas H. Hopkins, son
of Mr. and Mrs. Frank Hopkins. Mrs. Frank Hop-
kins was a descendent of Governor Thomas Bibb,
first Governor of Alabama. John Buchanan Floyd
Jr., married Hibernia Wise, daughter of Arthur
Wise of Virginia and Lucy Harris of Alabama.
Florence Lee Floyd, unmarried; Charles Perkins
Floyd, unmarried; Nicholas Nathaniel Floyd, un-
married. Captain Floyd was one of the Couriers be-

KU KLUX KLAN, 1865-1877 59

tween the Ku Klux Klan headquarters and the
Virginia Ku Klux Klan.

Fortunatus Shackleford Wood was born Jan. 26,
1838, died May 14, 1914. He was a member of Co.
E., 26th Alabama Regiment, Confederate States
Army commanded by Captain James Henry Malone.
Later this was changed to 50th then to 22nd Regiment
with W. D. Chaddick's Battalion 1st Alabama Vol-
unteers. He was paroled May 1, 1865 at Greensboro,
N. C. He was a member of the Home Guards
(Athens, Ala.) known as the Limestone Rebels
which became the 26th Alabama Regiment. Mr.
Wood was a very progressive and highly esteemed
citizen of his native town, Athens, Alabama. He was
the Grand Magi of the Athens Ku Klux Klan. He
is survived by two sons Mr. George Wood, Mr.
William Wood and a charming and gifted daughter,
a "song-bird of the South," Miss Elizabeth Wood
(New York City).

General John Tyler Morgan, Second Grand
Dragon of the Realm of Alabama (Invisible Em-
pire), was born June 20, 1824, at Athens, Tennes-
see, and died June 11, 1907, at Washington, D..C;
was buried at his home Selma, Alabama, and was
followed to his grave by thousands of grateful Ala-
bamians, and other people from all over the United
States who realized that their great champion of
human libetry was gone.

General Morgan was descended from clan Morgan
of Wales and his grandfather came to this country
and settled in Connecticut and afterwards went to

60 AUTHENTIC HISTORY

Tennessee. His father was born at Saratoga, N. Y.,
one night when George Washington was visiting the
family, and he was named for George Washington.

His mother was Frances Irby of Virginia, a woman
of rare mental attainments, who taught her boy
almost entirely from memory in the absence of schools
and books which she could not always obtain for him.
She required him to memorize entire books, such as
Pope's Essay on Man, John Wesley's Sermons and
others; and in this way he cultivated a memory which
was of great advantage to him through life; his fund
of knowledge, and his ready use of it, was the aston-
ishment of those with whom he was associated
throughout his entire life.

He was sent to England on one occasion for our
government as our Senator, and a Lord of England
in conversing with him, was so impressed with his
marvelous command of facts, that he said "I wish you
would tell me what University you attended in
America."

Senator Morgan replied "I never was on a Univer-
sity campus but once, and that was during the Civil
War when I was hard pressed by the Yankee soldiers,
and took refuge, and made my barracks out of the
Mary and William College in Virginia. It is an
ordinary thing in America for men to succeed without
a University education."

He was a delegate from Dallas County to the se-
cession convention in 1861, and while opposed to
secession, he finally voted for the ordinance, his de-

KU KLUX KLAN, 1865-1877 61

bates in this convention were equal in brilliancy of
the great secession orator Wm, L. Yancey.

He abided by the majority, and enlisted as a private
in Company G., Fifth Alabama Regiment, Confed-
erate States Army, and was elected major of that
regiment. He resigned this commission, and returned
to Alabama, and equipped a mounted regiment almost
at his own expense, and was made Colonel. He was
ordered to report to General Nathan B. Forrest.
Colonel Morgan was promoted Brigadier General,
and in recognition of his military genius General
Robert E. Lee personally notified him of his
promotion.

At the close of the War between the States Gen-
eral Morgan returned to Alabama, and begun his
masterly effort to rehabilitate his devastated State.
When the iniquitous reconstruction measures were
forced upon Alabama, he came out boldly for "white
supremacy" and State sovereignty.

He was Grand Dragon of the Realm of Alabama
Ku Klux Klan (after the death of General Jas. H.
Clanton, who first held this position) until he was
elected United States Senator in 1876, and then Gen-
eral Edmund W. Pettus was made Grand Dragon.

When the "Grandfather Clause" was included in
the new Constitutions of the Southern States which
restored "white supremacy," General Morgan was
called upon to make the most tremendous effort of his
public life, to defeat the infamous "force bill" which
was designed to enforce the Fourteenth and Fifteenth

62 AUTHENTIC HISTORY

Amendments to the United States Constitution by
acts of Congress.

The resolution leading to this was introduced by-
Mr. Geo. Pritchard, a Republican. Senator Mor-
gan's debate against this bill was the crowning act of
his career for the good of the South and the whole
country. By his eloquence and logic, he won over
enough Northern Senators to defeat the measure,
and Colonel Thomas M. Owen in his "History of
Alabama" says:

"No one of his great public services won for him
greater gratitude from his people than his defeat of
a movement which would have, if made effective by
law, brought back to the Southern States all the dis-
orders and horrors of the reconstruction period, and
perhaps another Civil War, for Senator Morgan said
in his debate in the Senate 'such a measure would
abolish the state as to its rightful sovereign powers
and would remand it to the condition of our organized
Territories, all of whose laws may be repealed by
Congress, and all of whose officials may be placed
under the power of appointment and removed by the
President.' " This debate was in 1900, and not long
after this I was in conversation with Senator Morgan,
and thanked him for his success in preventing the
passage of the "force bill," and he smiled and said,
"I was so excited that I came very near telling them
on the Senate floor that I was a Ku Klux Klansman,
and that if that bill passed, there would be a million
of them to rise up against it."

I then asked him many questions regarding the Ku

KU KLUX KLAN, 1865-1877 63

Klux Klan in Alabama, and am indebted to him for
a great deal of information stated in this history.
Senator Morgan was the first man I ever heard make
a public speech.

When I was quite a small girl, he made a speech in
the court house yard at Athens, Alabama, urging the
people not to leave Alabama, as many were so dis-
couraged that they were seeking homes elsewhere on
account of the threatened laws for the amalgamation
of the races, and of mixed schools, and other de-
pressing measures imposed upon the State by the
General Government. General Sterling Price went
to Mexico to found a colony, but General Wood of
Mississippi said in a newspaper, "Better submit and
endure wrongs than be exiles in a foreign land," and
he returned home.

General Morgan said in this speech that some day
there would be a canal connecting the Atlantic and
Pacific Oceans; that the Muscle Shoals in the Ten-
nessee River would be developed by the United
States Government; that great ocean-going steamers
would ply between the Ohio River and Chattanooga,
and that Alabama would be among the leading states
of the Union.

He turned to my father, Colonel Lawrence Ripley
Davis, who was seated beside him on the rostrum, and
with deep emotion in his voice and tears streaming
down his face, he said "As for my part I will stay and
I feel sure that my friend 'Rip Davis' will be among
the number who will stay with my beloved state
of Alabama," and with the people cheering until his

64 AUTHENTIC HISTORY

voice was almost drowned, he closed his immortal
speech with the words "Alabama, Here We Rest."

Many men and women rushed forward, and
grasped his hand, and promised him that they would
join his patriots who would redeem Alabama, and
forever defend it against every foreign foe. Senator
Morgan was a very handsome and distinguished man
in appearance, and was as gentle as a woman in his
dealings with everyone.

From this speech until the day of his death, he was
my ideal statesman, and I never missed an oppor-
tunity to hear his debates in the senate of the United
States, where he was a credit to Alabama and to the
whole country. He was the "father of the isthmian
canal idea," and championed the route through the
valley of the San Juan River, and across Lake Nica-
ragua, as it was the most practical and healthful way.

He had given exhaustive study to the subject of
slides and other obstacles to be overcome in the build-
ing of the canal, and he was deeply disappointed
when the Panama route was selected, but he was so
great a statesman that he yielded his views and ac-
cepted the inevitable and worked on until his death
for the canal, but did not live to see it completed.

Senator Morgan's fame is too well known to re-
quire any further outline of his work in this book,
but I shall only say that he was the greatest Senator
Alabama has ever had, for no matter was too small
for his attention that concerned the humblest of his
constituents and no task too great for him to attempt
in the interest of his State and the country at large.

KU KLUX KLAN, 1865-1877 65

Miss Mary Morgan is the only child who survives
her illustrious father.

The Ku Klux Klan of Eufaula was commanded by
Mr. James Lawrence Pugh who was born in Georgia,
and died at Washington after serving sixteen years
as United States Senator from Alabama. He was a
Representative in Congress, and resigned when Ala-
bama seceded from the Union.

He entered the Confederate states army in 1861,
and was in Company A, Alabama Infantry, and
acted as escort when Jefferson Davis was inaugu-
rated president of the Confederate States of America.
Mr. Pugh was a member of the First and Second
Confederate Congresses and was Grand Titan of the
Ku Klux Klan, Realm of Alabama.

While in the United States Senate, and as chair-
man of the Judiciary Committee of the Senate in the
Fifty-third and Fifty-fourth Congresses, his report
on the Tenure of Office Act was said to have been one
of the greatest of state papers written within forty
years, as it involved all the principles of law on
which the impeachment charges against President
Andrew Johnson were based. This case was of
George Dustin, a United States District Attorney,
who was removed from office by President Grover
Cleveland. Mr. Pugh was the father of Mrs. Alfred
W. Cochran of New York City, who is a very charm-
ing woman.

The Grand Cyclops of the Huntsville Klan was
Colonel William M. Lowe, who told the Committee
of Congress Investigating Affairs in Insurrectionary

66 AUTHENTIC HISTORY

States "that the Ku Klux were said to be the
Confederate dead who had risen from the dead and
were incapable of being wounded or killed and could
drink wells of water as they had been where it was
very warm! 3 He said: "After a great civil convul-
sion such as ours was, the people being in appre-
hension that the very foundations of society would
be broken up, was the excuse for the Ku Klux Klan."
When he was asked if Colonel Nicholas Davis was
a member of the Union League, he said, "he was not
and was very hostile to it." In this distorted, un-
truthful report of this Committee, it is stated that
Colonel Lowe said that Colonel Davis was a scalawag.
There never was a greater falsehood ever penned, for,
had it been true Colonel Lowe would never have said
such a disrespectful thing about his brother-in-law
who had been a father to him, and, in whose home he
lived at that time.

This falsehood was put in this report about Colonel
Davis being a scalawag because he had prosecuted so
many "carpet-baggers" and often secured convictions,
and the Federal authorities at Huntsville would dis-
miss the prisoners ; then Colonel Davis would report
to the Ku Klux Klan, of which he was a member, to
drive these criminals from the state if they could not
be properly punished.

Colonel William M. Lowe, when asked if he knew
of any disguised men taking guns away from negroes,
said: "On Colonel Lawrence Ripley Davis* planta-
tion the spurious Ku Klux Klan, in disguise, had
attempted to take guns away from two negro men

KU KLUX KLAN, 1865-1877 67

who had been Colonel Davis' former slaves, named
Archie and Alex, and that Col. Davis and Capt.
DeWitt Clinton Davis took their guns to defend
their negroes and with their help unmasked the men
and found they were impostors and were imitating
the Ku Klux Klan."

Colonel Lowe said, "there was no more loyal
Southerner" than Colonel Nicholas Davis and al-
though he was a Union man, before secession, he fol-
lowed the destiny of his State. He was a member of
the Secession Convention at Montgomery in 1861 and
wrote the resolution asking that the ordinance of
secession be submitted to the people for ratification
as his section of Alabama was opposed to secession.
He served in the Confederate States Army.

Colonel Nicholas Davis never held any public
office after the Civil War and therefore could not be
placed in the category of "scalawags" as has been
done by the reconstruction committee of Congress.
Colonel Nicholas Davis died from exhaustion in 1874
while defending a man for his life. He was a bril-
liant lawyer and a much beloved citizen of Huntsville.

Captain William Richardson, judicial officer of the
Ku Klux Klan, stated before the sub-committee on
"Condition of Affairs in the Southern States" hold-
ing hearings at Huntsville, Alabama, Oct. 12, 1871,
that he was not in favor of secession in Alabama
and did not approve of the plan by which it was done.
He said he thought it would have been voted down if
it had been submitted to the people, as there was great
bitterness in his county of Limestone upon the man-

68 AUTHENTIC HISTORY

ner in which the ordinance of secession was carried
through the convention.

He said he made a speech in the Cumberland Pres-
byterian Church at Athens, Limestone County, in
protest against secession, and his father too was
opposed to secession. (Capt. Richardson told me a
few years before his death that he still had that Union
speech that he made on Feb. 22, 1861.)

Alabama having seceded on Jan. 11, 1861, and the
feeling generally in North Alabama was opposed to
secession — as a further evidence of his Union senti-
ment he suggested and helped to put up the "Stars
and Stripes" on the cupola of the court house at
Athens where it stayed until he decided to take it
down and espouse the cause of his State by entering
the Confederate States Army and the eleven men
beside himself who had put the flag up all went into
the Confederate service.

Capt. Richardson when asked why he went into the
Confederate service when he so ardently wished the
Union preserved, replied: "I afterward entered the
army as a Confederate soldier, freely and from my
own choice, for the reason that it had then become a
question whether I should side with my own people
or whether I should fight in the army of the United
States.

"Upon that question I had no hesitancy whatever.
As long as there was a possibility, so far as my then
limited intelligence in political matters could discern,
of the Union being preserved and kept together, en-
tertaining merely the sentiments of my father — hav-

This is a picture of the mask worn by the organizers of

the original Ku Klux Klan, loaned by the Archives

of History of Alabama.

(Drawn for this History by Mrs. John
Moore, Montgomery, Alabama.)

KU KLUX KLAN, 1865-1877 69

ing his views reflected upon me — I was for its
preservation and maintenance. I went into the Con-
federate army because it had become an actual and
real fact that there was no Union, so far as Alabama
was concerned ; that it was gone, and that I either had
to go up North or stay South; the latter I had no
hesitancy in doing.

"When Mr. Lincoln made a call for 75,000 troops,
my feelings upon that subject were changed; there
had been an entire change in my feelings upon that
subject after that call for 75,000 troops.

"I was no longer in favor of maintaining the Union.
I was in favor of abiding by my State and following
her destiny. When asked about the Loyal League
he said: "In regard to the organization called the
Loyal League, all I can tell you of that organization,
a Radical organization fomenting trouble in the
South, is from what I heard — nothing that I know
of my personal knowledge.

"I know to the best of my information and belief
that such an organization existed. I knew of its
President. He was Daniel H. Bingham.

"I remember that they used to meet in an old drug
store on the corner of the square in Athens ; that was
in 1866; they would meet once a week. At that time
they met in the day. I could see them going up into
the house. I remember a disturbance that took place
when they met there.

"The object of the League, so far as I understood,
was to get the colored people into it and instill
into them animosity and prejudice against the native

70 AUTHENTIC HISTORY

Southern white people, and to thereby insure their
votes for the radical party." Captain Richardson
said that in a letter to the Huntsville Advocate July
25, 1870, Governor Smith, a republican, denounced
other "carpet-baggers" for uttering falsehoods about
the South, and said of J. D. Sibly, a "carpet-bag"
Sheriff: "My candid opinion is that Sibly does not
want to execute the law, because that would put down
crime, and crime is his life's blood. He would like
very much to have a Ku Klux outrage every week to
assist him in keeping up strife between the whites
and blacks, that he might be more certain of the
votes of the latter.

"He would like to have a few colored men killed
every week to furnish a semblance of truth to Senator
Spencer's libels upon the people of the State gen-
erally. I speak in strong terms of condemnation of
the conduct of two white men in Tuskegee a few days
ago in advising colored men to resist the authority of
the Sheriff; and these are not Ku Klux, but are
Republicans."

Capt. Richardson told the sub-committee at Hunts-
ville that he knew positively that the Ku Klux Klan
did not start the riot at Huntsville when Silas Thur-
low was killed and others wounded; that he was
on the opposite side of the court square, and was
talking with the Ku Klux Klan and persuading them
to move on.

He told me a few years before his death that the
Ku Klux who were in Huntsville that night were men
he knew to be of the highest character, and were out

KU KLUX KLAN, 1865-1877 71

only to keep order if such a thing were possible. He
said he persuaded them to return home which they
did near daylight and as they rode away his brother,
Dr. Nicholas Davis Richardson, whispered in his ear
that he must go back to his patients and rode away.

General Jas. H. Clanton, Grand Dragon of the
Invisible Empire, Alabama Realm, was with them
that night and returned to my father's home twelve
miles from Huntsville. They were brothers-in-law.
General Clanton was a very gallant soldier and a
very distinguished lawyer. He had been a Whig and
was opposed to secession but when the War began he
cast his lot with the people of his State, and after the
War he led the men of his State in forming the Con-
servative Party into which he thought he could gather
all shades of political opinion that was for the good
of Alabama. He had great powers of leadership
and is described by Col. Hillary A. Herbert in "Why
the Solid South" as "a great man of phenomenal
courage, of great directness of thought and speech,
and singular magnetism." He met a tragic death
on the streets of Knoxville, Tennessee, when he was
shot by Mr. David Nelson when they had a heated
argument over a law-suit on which they were on op-
posite sides. His death was a great shock and loss to
his State, coming as it did, at the most crucial time in
her history.

Captain Wm. Richardson and General Clanton
were warm personal friends, and he knew that night
at Huntsville that all would be well while the Ku

72 AUTHENTIC HISTORY

Klux Klan was being led by him and his brother,
Dr. Richardson.

William Richardson was born May 8, 1839, at
Athens, Alabama, and died at Atlantic City, May
31, 1914, and was buried at his home city of Hunts-
ville, Alabama, where a large concourse of citizens
followed him to the grave. He was educated at
Florence Wesleyan University, and entered the serv-
ice of the Confederate States Army in 1861.

He was severely wounded at Shiloh, and again at
Chickamauga which wounds gave him great pain dur-
ing the remainder of his life. He represented his
County of Limestone in the Legislature in 1867. He
then moved to Madison County where he was Probate
Judge for several years.

He was Democratic elector for the State at large.
He was a brilliant lawyer specializing in criminal law
until he was elected to Congress as representative
from the Eighth Alabama District from 1900 until
his death. He took a prominent part in important
legislation such as the Panama Canal, and the De-
partment of Labor. He is survived by one son, Wil-
liam Richardson, Nashville, Tennessee, and four
daughters.

Dr. Nicholas Davis Richardson, Grand Cyclops of
the Athens Ku Klux Klan, was born November
30, 1832, at Athens, Alabama, and died January
3, 1895, at Nashville, Tennessee, and was buried
at Athens, Alabama. He was a son of Wm. Rich-
ardson and Ann Ridley (Davis) Richardson; a
grandson of Nicholas Davis and Martha Pleasants

KU KLUX KLAN, 1865-1877 73

(Hargrave) Davis of Virginia, who came to Ala-
bama in 1817, and settled in Limestone County,
and built them a magnificent home called "Walnut
Grove" where they brought with them the traditional
Virginia hospitality.

Dr. Nicholas Davis Richardson was educated at
the John Frazer Academy in his native town, at
LaGrange College, University of Virginia, and Jef-
ferson Medical College, Philadelphia, Penn. He
was a devout Methodist, and a high Mason. He
entered the Confederate States Army in 1861, and
was Surgeon of the Twenty-sixth Alabama, and Fif-
tieth Regiments until the close of the war in 1865.

He returned to his home at Athens, and resumed
the practice of his profession, and was the most be-
loved physician of his time. He was the Grand
Cyclops of the Ku Klux Klan until 1871 when his
health failed, and Captain Robert Anderson McClel-
lan succeeded him until 1872 when Major Robert
Donnell became the Grand Cyclops, and served until
the close of the Ku Klux Klan.

Dr. Richardson was a born physician; his match-
less magnetism engendered in his patients a sublime
faith in his skill and ability to save their lives. He
was a very handsome man — immaulate in his attire at
all times; a most compelling smile radiated his fea-
tures, and was always a great asset to him in healing
the sick, and in comforting the dying.

He would compel cheerfulness from those attend-
ing his patients, and did all in his power to cure them,
and was marvelously successful.

74 AUTHENTIC HISTORY

He was twice married, and to his first marriage
were born six children, two of whom are still living in
Athens, Alabama: Roswell H. Richardson who still
lives in the Colonial mansion of his father, and a
daughter, a most beautiful and gracious woman, Mrs.
Thomas Maclin Hobbs. The mother of his children
was Miss Betty Hine, who was a most lovable char-
acter, and in many ways ministered to his sick
patients, both high and low, black and white, and was
the most universally beloved woman who ever lived in
Athens. She died in early womanhood. His second
wife was Mrs. Anna (Echols) Sledge, who was a
very handsome and brilliant woman, and was his
solace in his last years.

The Second Grand Cyclops of the Athens Den,
Ku Klux Klan, Robert Anderson McClellan, was
born Dec. 24, 1843, in Lincoln County, Tennessee,
and was brought to Alabama to live in 1844. He
died July 27, 1898, at Athens, Alabama, and is
buried there. He was a descendant of a Scotchman
who came to this country before the Revolutionary
war, and settled in Loudon County, Virginia, Wil
liam McClellan, who was a captain of cavalry during
the Revolutionary war from Virginia. He afterwards
went to North Carolina where his son Thomas Joyce
was born, and was the father of Robert A. McClellan
and his mother was Martha Fleming (Beattie)
McClellan.

He enlisted in the Confederate States Army soon
after the beginning of the war while he was yet a
school boy, and was in company C, Seventh Alabama

KU KLUX KLAN, 1865-1877 75

cavalry, and served under Col. Jas. C. Malone as a
lieutenant.

He had many horses killed under him during the
war, and his clothing shot to pieces several times, and
by a miracle he escaped without being wounded. He
was of a magnificent physique, being six feet and
three inches in height, and sufficient weight for his
height; after the war he studied law under Judge
Wm. H. Walker and begun the practice at Athens
and was considered one of the most brilliant lawyers
at the Alabama bar. He was in the Constitutional
Convention of Alabama in 1875, which reconstructed
the State and was a leader in all movements for the
betterment of his State. He was mayor of Athens
and made many improvements in the town and its
government. He was one of the Night Hawks of
the Athens Ku Klux Klan and was afterwards made
Grand Cyclops.

This information was given me by him, and the
picture furnished for this history. He was married
in 1872 to a very brilliant woman, Miss Aurora Pryor
who survives him, two children, Judge Thomas C.
McClellan, Associate Justice of Supreme Court of
Alabama, and Memory, who is the wife of Mr. Robert
Henry Walker of Athens, Alabama.

Mr. Robert Beaty Mason was born in the ancestral
home, Jan. 27, 1846, and died May 19, 1904. He
was in the Confederate States Army, Company A,
11th Alabama Cavalry, commanded by General
Rhoddy. He was a Night Hawk of the Athens Ku
Klux Klan. He is survived by a beautiful and ac-

76 AUTHENTIC HISTORY

complished daughter, Miss Mary Mason, and two
sons, who are proud that their father was a member
of the Ku Klux Klan of that time. They reside in
the ancestral mansion, the picture of which is given
in this book.

The following statement from Colonel Lee Cran-
dall is given, as he is one of the few men still living
who substantiates the fact that the Ku Klux Klan
did not disband in 1869, as is the popular belief. His
business took him all over the South, and he saw them
everywhere when needed, from 1865-1877:

"Lee Crandall, residing in Alexandria, Rapides
Parish, Louisiana, was chosen captain of the 'Rapides
Invincibles' which was Company I, 8th Louisiana In-
fantry. It was ordered to Manassas, Virginia, and
was in service at the first battle of Bull Run; said
Regiment wintered in Centerville, Virginia, under
General Richard Taylor.

"In 1862 when 'Stonewall' Jackson prepared for
his great Valley Campaign he detailed me to report
to him for special service. After defeating three ar-
mies, General Jackson's command went to Rich-
mond, Virginia, to aid General Lee defeat General
McClellan.

"On the recommendation of General T. J. Jack-
son, I was promoted to Major of Cavalry and was
ordered to report to General Sterling Price.

"After a few months' service in northern Arkansas
and southern Missouri I was chosen colonel of the
47th Arkansas Cavalry. I was captured in Kansas
and was imprisoned on Johnson's Island, Ohio, and

KU KLUX KLAN, 1865-1877 77

remained there from 1864 until the close of the war.

"In 1868 I migrated from New Orleans, La., to
Alabama. I married Miss Hattie M. Giers, daughter
of Prof. Jean J. Giers, of Valhomosa Springs, Mor-
gan County, Alabama, and we have four sons. I have
one daughter by a former marriage, having lost my
first wife soon after the daughter's birth. My second
wife and five children are still with me.

"I was field manager for the New York Graphic,
the first daily illustrated newspaper in the world.
During the reconstruction period in the South, I
introduced this paper into the 'Sunny South.' My
success was so great that the Graphic selected me to
go to Philadelphia and open a branch office in 1875
to report and illustrate the Centennial of 1876 and I
did this from day to day during the period of the
Centennial.

"In 1874, I was in Alabama, and while there I
went to Athens, Limestone County, and persuaded
George S. Houston of that place to consent to the
appeals of the people to make the race for governor
and he said' to me he was too near the Tennessee line
and felt it would be a disadvantage not being centrally
located in the state. I told him that he would be
nominated anyway and he gave me his consent to
place him in nomination.

"I then went to Huntsville, Madison County, Ala-
bama, and secured the support of Colonel Wm. M.
Lowe, a gallant confederate soldier and able states-
man who begun to make sure of his county for Hous-
ton. I worked for him in Morgan, my adopted

78 AUTHENTIC HISTORY

county, and he was elected and served two terms and
redeemed Alabama from "Carpet Bag" and negro
rule.

"I visited Colonel Wm, M. Lowe, in the home of
Colonel Nicholas Davis, with whom he made his
home, Colonel Nicholas Davis being his brother-in-
law, and met Colonel Davis not long before his death
in 1874. It has been stated erroneously that Colonel
Nicholas Davis was a scalawag. There was never a
greater falsehood stated in any history. He was a
very distinguished lawyer and fine man. He was a
member of the Secession Convention and wrote the
resolution to the ordinance of secession to submit it
to the people.

"During the Ku Klux Klan hearings held in
Huntsville in 1871, Colonel Nicholas Davis was a
witness before the Committee of Congress on the
Ku Klux Acts, and his position in politics was falsely
reported in these hearings. I know that the Ku Klux
Klan elected George S. Houston governor when he
redeemed Alabama from debt and disaster. Before I
left Louisiana I was affiliated with the White League.
After moving to Alabama I lived in the mountains far
removed from a railroad, and so isolated that I could
not leave my wife alone and could not ride with the
Ku Klux Klan at night, but attended to the political
affairs for them in the day time, and state here that
the Ku Klux Klan redeemed the South from oppres-
sion, and restored the seceding States to the Union.

"In 1879 I founded the National View, Washing-
ton, D. C, a greenback, silver labor paper and edited

KU KLUX KLAN, 1865-1877 79

it until 1894. I then suspended it and migrated to
Arizona. I suggested George W. B. Hunt for the
first governor of that state after its admission into
the Union. He served three full terms and after an
interval of many years was elected for the fourth term
and is now governor of Arizona. Governor Hunt is
a native of Huntsville, Missouri."

I greatly appreciate the preceding statements
made by Col. Lee Crandall, "America's Grand Old
Man." He is 91 years old and still in active service
in the U. S. Government. He is 2nd Lieutenant
Commander of United Confederate Veterans Camp,
No. 171, Washington, D. C, and is greatly beloved
and honored by a host of friends.

On the occasion of President Harding's funeral he
marched alone from 19th Street to the Capitol to pay
his respects as a Confederate soldier to his dead presi-
dent, and was called the "Lone Figure in Gray."
Mrs. Lee Crandall is a beautiful and brilliant
woman and she and her devoted husband are the most
youthful couple I have ever known of their ages, and
they typify the old South and the new South.

THE FIRST CONVENTION,

KU KLUX KLAN, AT NASHVILLE,

TENN., MAY, 1867

Previous to the assembling of the Convention the
Pulaski Ku Klux Klan had given permission to men
in Fayetteville, Lincoln County, Tenn., and Hunts-
ville, Madison County, Alabama, to form Ku Klux
Klans. It was around these four adjoining counties,
that the Ku Klux Klan pivoted throughout its entire
existence.

The Pulaski Ku Klux Klan at this time had de-
cided fully that, at this proposed Convention, a leader
for all Ku Klux Klan activities which might develop
throughout the South should be chosen, and toward
that end, they sent emissaries to place before General
Robert E. Lee, the fact that the Ku Klux Klan which
had started merely in sport, was rapidly reaching tre-
mendous proportions as a force for meeting distress-
ing conditions in the South, and to ascertain if its
continuance would meet his approval.

The men who were chosen to see General Lee were
Major Felix G. Buchanan, of Lincoln County; Cap-
tain John B. Kennedy of the Pulaski Ku Klux Klan,
Captain William Richardson of the Athens Ku Klux
Klan, Bishop Richard H. Wilmer, and Captain John
B. Floyd, of the Alabama Ku Klux Klan.

KU KLUX KLAN, 1865-1877 81

General Lee was told in the most impressive man-
ner possible of the good already done by the Ku Klux
Klan, in the hope that he would express a wish to join
them, but he did not make application.

He said to them, "I would like to assist you in any
plan that offers relief. I cannot be with you in person
but I will follow you but must be invisible; and my
advice is to keep it as you have it, a protective
organization."

When this message was delivered to the Convention
it led to the christening of the United Ku Klux Klan,
the "Invisible Empire," for they felt that General
Lee was their "guiding spirit."

Captain William Richardson suggested General
Nathan B. Forrest for the leader of the Ku Klux
Klan, if it met with General Lee's approval, and he
said: "General Nathan B. Forrest is the only man I
know who could lead so large a body of men suc-
cessfully. You may present to him my compliments
and ask him if he will accept the leadership."

The emissaries returned and immediately after-
wards a general meeting of the four counties, Giles,
Lincoln, Limestone and Madison, was held at "The
Cove," the meeting place near Athens, Alabama.
Captain DeWitt Clinton Davis, a member of the
Madison County Ku Klux Klan, was appointed to
visit General Forrest at Memphis and invite him to
become the leader of the Ku Klux Klan.

Captain Davis had been an officer in "Forrest's
Cavalry," and Captain William Richardson accom-
panied him to Memphis to express his gratitude to

82 AUTHENTIC HISTORY

General Forrest for having rescued him at Murf rees-
boro, Tennessee, during the "War between the
States,'' from being shot as a spy, which he was not.

The Federal guards set fire to the jail when they
found that General Forrest had come to liberate the
"Rebels." For this act, the Federal commander had
these guards court-martialed and shot when General
Forrest had them identified by Captain Richardson
and another Confederate prisoner sentenced with
him.

General Forrest returned to Athens with Captain
Davis. He expressed great pleasure at being able to
visit again the scene where in September, 1864, he had
come to the rescue of this town when it was being
burned by the Federal troops under the leadership of
Col. Wallace Campbell, U. S. A.

The people of Athens were determined to show all
honor to General Forrest on this visit, for it was still
fresh in their memories, that he came before daylight
on Sept. 24, 1864, when a strong garrison of the
United States Army was in possession of the town of
Athens, and they were prepared to defend it by for-
midable forts and block-houses.

These block-houses were supposed to be impreg-
nable, but they proved an easy mark for Forrest's
artillery when General Forrest ordered Captain John
W. Morton to bring two guns into action. The guns
were placed in the street leading to the Fort and the
shots tore straight through the embankment.

General Forrest heard a train coming in from De-
catur on which he was advised were Federal Troops to

KU KLUX KLAN, 1865-1877 83

reinforce the garrison. The soldiers left the train and
barricaded themselves behind cross-ties which were
corded up near the track. They began a terrific fire
on the Confederates. Col. D. C. Kelly, C. S. A.,
ordered his men to dismount and charge the foe be-
hind the cord wood.

General Lyon was skirmishing behind the enemy's
rear. The retreat of the Federal army was so rapid
that it ran into General Lyon's line and captured it.
The line captured was commanded by a gallant young
soldier, Capt. Henry C. Klyce. Having taken Klyce
their prisoner he told the Federal commander, that
General Forrest had completely surrounded the town
and further fighting would only subject the men on
both sides, to their own fire.

The capture of Athens, Alabama, has been pro-
nounced by military men as one of the most adroit
performances of the great cavalry leader for the
C. S. A., Nathan B. Forrest, and was at that time
the fulfillment of a great need, as a large supply of
provisions, horses and ammunition, was captured.

When General Forrest heard of the occupation of
Athens, Ala., by the Federals, he was at Florence,
Ala., and encamped near Muscle Shoals, forty
miles away. He made a pontoon bridge across the
river and within a few hours had reached Athens in a
heavy rain storm, at night. At daybreak he ordered
his soldiers to line up and hold their position, until
further orders.

He then decided that it would be almost impossible
to capture the block-houses on the western side of the

84 AUTHENTIC HISTORY

town from where his line of battle was drawn; so he
informed the U. S. A. commander that his full army-
was at the gates and it was useless to sacrifice life, for
he soon could overcome him with great numbers.
General Forrest then issued the following order.

"Headquarters Forrest Cavalry

In the Field, Sept. 24, 1864.
Officer Commanding U. S. Forces, Athens, Ala.

I demand an immediate and unconditional surren-
der of the entire force and all government stores and
property of this post. I have a sufficient force to
storm and take your works, and if I am forced to do
so the responsibility of the consequences must rest
with you. Should you, however, accept the terms, all
white soldiers shall be treated as prisoners of war, and
the negroes returned to their masters. A reply is re-
quested immediately.

N. B. Forrest,
Major-General, C. S. Army."

Col. Wallace Campbell, 110th United States
Colored Cavalry, Commanding, sent a message,
have the honor to decline your demand of this date."

General Forrest then asked for a personal inter-
view, and sent the following:

"Colonel, I desire an interview with you outside the
fort at any place you may designate, provided it meet!
your views. My only object is to stop the effusion oj
blood that must follow the storming of the place.

(signed) N. B, Forrest."

KU KLUX KLAN, 1865-1877 85

General Forrest sent this note under flag of truce
by Major Strane and Col. Campbell met him on the
Coleman Hill near the old home of Judge Daniel
Coleman, and after their conversation Col. Campbell
said in his report to the government that he returned
to the fort believing in the legerdemain by which
General Forrest made four thousand five hundred
men appear as ten thousand, and told his officers that
he would be compelled to surrender the fort.

The Federals lost three men and four were
wounded before they escaped into the forts when they
encountered Colonel Jesse Forrest's picket line. He
was General Forrest's brother. One of these soldiers
killed at Athens, Ala., Captain Tarpley, said to Col.
D. C. Kelly of Forrest's command, when he was
dying, that he hoped he would have him buried at
Athens, Ala., until his mother could come for him.
He still sleeps there beside many Confederate dead,
and each Decoration Day his grave is laden with flow-
ers by the Daughters of the Confederacy, as his
mother was never found.

The terms of surrender between General Forrest
and Colonel Wallace were concluded in the Court
House yard at Athens, Ala., where a monument now
stands commemorating it.

After General Forrest left Athens, Ala., he
marched on to Sulphur Trestle near Pulaski, Tenn.,
where he destroyed forts and block-houses on the
Louisville and Nashville Railroad and held in check
within the breastworks of Pulaski, Tenn., large Fed-
eral forces, thereby saving this town from destruction.

86 AUTHENTIC HISTORY

Huntsville, Ala., had a strong Federal garrison,
and General Forrest sent part of his division to
threaten it, and was the means of saving that beau-
tiful city.

Is it any wonder that the citizens of these three
towns where the Ku Klux Klan originated, turned to
him again in their dire distress which was much worse
than the Civil War, and asked him to lead them?

Previous to the Convention the Pulaski Ku Klux
Klan had hundreds of applications throughout the
South for permission to organize Ku Klux Klans.
Their requests were granted with directions to send
delegates to the Convention at Nashville, Tennessee,
in May. Upon the date set delegates of these Klans
assembled, proving that the Klan had spread like a
conflagration, answering the one call: "White
Supremacy."

This was in May, 1867, and at the time Nashville
was under martial law, and many Federal officers
were established in the "Maxwell House," which is
shown in the picture. The Ku Klux Klan Conven-
tion convened in this hotel in Room No. 10, without
the knowledge of the Federal authorities, as they
went as silently as they came. General Forrest was
administered the oath as Grand Wizard of the "In-
visible Empire," by Colonel J. W. Morton who had
commanded the artillery in "Forrest's Cavalry," and
who was Grand Cyclops of the Nashville Den, Ku
Klux Klan. He was requested to accept this honor
by Captain John C. Lester, of the founders' Ku

KU KLUX KLAN, 1865-1877 87

Klux Klan of Pulaski, as until this time he had ad-
ministered the oath to all members.

The plan of the Ku Klux Klan for reorganization
previously prepared was submitted to this convention
and adopted. The Ku Klux Klan was for the first
time designated as the "Invisible Empire," based on
the report of the committee sent to General Robert E.
Lee, stating that he would be with them but would be
"invisible." When this report was given many of
"Forrest's Cavalry" present arose and shouted,
"Wizard of the Saddle!" And Major James R.
Crowe said, "I nominate him 'Grand Wizard of the
Invisible Empire!' "

The powers of the Grand Wizard were almost auto-
cratic. His ten assistants were called Genii. The
"Invisible Empire" was subdivided into Realms; the
Realms were divided into Dominions, which were the
Congressional districts; and the Dominions were di-
vided into Provinces which were the limits of the
county and the Provinces into Dens.

The chief officer of the Realm was called the
"Grand Dragon" and his eight assistants "Hydras."
The head of the Dominion was called "Grand Titan,"
and his six assistants "Furies." The chief of the
"Den" was still called "Grand Cyclops" and his as-
sistants "Night Hawks." The other officers of the
"Invisible Empire" were "Grand Monk," a "Grand
Sentinel" and a "Grand Scribe." The Genii, Hy-
dras, and Night Hawks were staff officers. The only
titles in plain English were Surgeon-in-Chief, Chap-
lain-in-Chief, and Judiciary-in-Chief . I asked an old

88 AUTHENTIC HISTORY

Ku Klux Klansman why this was and he said:
"When a Ku Klux needed them he would wish to call
them in plain words."

The Ku Klux Klan was one of the best organized
orders that ever existed in the world, based as it was,
on secrecy, mystery and the word of honor between
men, for then "knighthood was in flower."

This convention adopted the following principles:

"We recognize our relation to the United States
Government, the supremacy of the Constitutional
laws thereof, and the union of States thereunder."

"To protect the weak, the innocent, the defenseless,
from the indignities, wrongs and outrages of the law-
less, the violent and the brutal; to relieve the in-
jured and oppressed, succor the suffering; especially
the widows and orphans of Confederate soldiers; to
protect and defend the Constitution of the United
States, and all laws in conformity thereto; and to
protect the states and the people thereof from all
invasion from any source whatsoever. To aid and
assist in the execution of all constitutional laws; to
protect the people from unlawful seizure, and from
trial except by their peers, in conformity to the laws
of the land."

This last resolution was adopted because of the in-
famous legislation which had been passed against the
Confederate soldiers on June 3, 1865, by the 34th
General Assembly of Tennessee, which revived the
sedition law and deprived the Confederate soldiers
and all southern sympathizers of the right of suffrage.

The hope of this Convention was that the strength-

KU KLUX KLAN, 1865-1877 89

ening of the organization would enable it to enact
its role as Regulators with greater success.

The parades which had attracted much attention
were recommended by General Nathan B. Forrest to
be continued, and he issued an order to the Grand
Dragons of the Realms for a parade to be held in
each province on the night of July 4, 1867.

The Order was named in the first week of its exis-
tence the "Ku Klux Klan" and it is believed that this
weird alliteration, by its appeal to the imagination of
men, was one of the greatest sources of its power, as
it led through curiosity, to its growth.

No one was ever asked to join the Ku Klux Klan
except General Nathan Bedford Forrest, when he
was invited to be its leader; and he agreed to do so in
fulfillment of his pledge to his army on the day when
he first learned that General Robert E. Lee had sur-
rendered; and, when he surrendered, he said to his
soldiers: "Be firm and unwavering, discharging
every duty devolving upon you. For my part, with
undiminished confidence in your courage and forti-
tude, and knowing you will not disregard the claims
of honor, patriotism and manhood, and those of the
women and children of the country, so long de-
fended by your strong arms and willing hearts,
your commander announces his determination to
stand by you, stay with you and lead you to the
end."

He kept his pledge by his tactics as Grand Wizard
of the Ku Klux Klan. He won freedom for the
Southland, and down the ages of time his fame will

90 AUTHENTIC HISTORY

shine none the less brightly as one of the world's
greatest cavalry leaders because he was a Ku Klux
Klansman from 1865-1877.

This brief biography of General Nathan B. Forrest
is given in order that the most sceptical reader will
believe that in that dark hour the South had a leader.

Nathan Bedford Forrest was born at Chapel Hill,
Tennessee, July 13, 1821. Enlisted as a private in
the Confederate States Army in 1861. Captain, Ten-
nessee Cavalry, 1861. Colonel of Forrest's Regiment
of Cavalry, May 1861. Brigadier-General July 21,
1862. Major General Dec. 4, 1863. Lieutenant
General February 28, 1865.

He won the name "The Wizard of the Saddle" be-
cause he rose quickly from the ranks of the Company
in which he enlisted, to a Commander, and "was a
genius of war." He is today considered one of the
world's greatest soldiers.

General Forrest dismissed an officer from his com-
mand for immorality. He never drank intoxicating
liquors. He always held divine services in his tent
on Sunday during the war. Col. D. C. Kelley, who
was Chaplain in "Forrest's Cavalry," told me "he
never failed to have him pray just before a fight."
He was called the "Fighting Parson" by General
Forrest.

General Forrest had a profound respect for wom-
anhood — and was a devoted husband. He married
Mary Montgomery, a brilliant woman, who was his
inspiration. Governor James D. Porter, of Nash-
ville, Tennessee, told me of the grief of Mr. Jefferson

KU KLUX KLAN, 1865-1877 91

Davis, as they attended General Forrest's funeral
together. He said Mr. Davis accorded General
Forrest first place as a Cavalry leader of the Civil
War.

General Forrest died October 29, 1877, and beside
the "Father of Waters" in the city of Memphis, he
awaits the final bugle call, beloved for his great
bravery in times of war, and for his leadership of the
mysterious movements of the Ku Klux Klan which
led to his being called the " Saviour of the South" and
"Grand Wizard of the Invisible Empire."

General Forrest made the most romantic record of
all history during the Civil War. He captured mil-
lions of dollars worth of supplies, cannon, ammuni-
tion and horses, and captured 31,000 prisoners; had
29 horses killed under him, rode thousands of miles
by day and night ; was wounded seriously four times,
and won the soubriquets "King of Mounted Raiders,"
"Stonewall Jackson of the West," "Wizard of the
Saddle," and "The American Murat."

The following statement is from the pen of one of
"Forrest's Cavalry," a native of Mississippi and a
distinguished Southern gentleman of the old school,
Captain Fred Beall, Commander of Camp 171,
United Confederate Veterans of the City of Wash-
ington, District of Columbia:

"I served under General Nathan Bedford Forrest
from the date of the killing of General Earl VanDorn

by Dr. , in the spring of 1863 at Spring Hill,

Tennessee, for breaking up the peace of his home,
until he sent me to Mississippi on a very special

92 AUTHENTIC HISTORY

service. When it was known that the general had
been killed a number of my comrades in arms followed
the distinguished citizen who killed him to try to cap-
ture him, but he had planned his escape so well by
leaving down fences and opening gates throughout
the plantations that he was not overtaken.

"I did not go in pursuit of him for I thought Gen-
eral VanDorn ought to have been killed, believing as
I did then, and as I do now that men should always
protect the honor of womanhood when attacked either
by high or low.

"After the close of the war between the Southern
States and the Federal Government, General Forrest
undertook to build a railroad from Selma, Ala., to
Memphis. The proposed line of said railroad ran
through Lowndes County, Mississippi, in which I
then resided and practiced law, at West Point, about
16 miles from the beautiful city of Columbus, the
capital of said county.

"General Forrest was making a canvass through
the section of the county through which his railroad
was to be built, and came to my town with quite a
large number of lawyers and other prominent citizens
from Columbus to address our people in the interests
of his railroad.

"I did not have any desire to oppose General
Forrest, but felt it to be my duty as a citizen to op-
pose his scheme to tax the people at that time for the
purpose of building a railroad and accordingly was
one of the speakers to oppose the levy of taxes for
that purpose.

The Tree at the Cove Spring, three miles from Athens,
Alabama, under which General Nathan Bedford Forrest,
Confederate States Army, was administered the preliminary
oath of the Ku Klux Klan by Captain John C. Lester.

(Photographed by W. A. Rosser, Birmingham View Co.)

KU KLUX KLAN, 1865-1877 93

"General Forrest in the greatness and sublimity of
his noble heart took occasion to say when he began
to speak:

" 'I sincerely regret that my old army friend, Cap-
tain Fred Beall, who was one of the most gallant
officers in my command has seen it proper to oppose
the levying of a tax in this county for the purpose of
building a railroad — something greatly needed in this
section of the grand old State of Mississippi.'

"By the aid of the negro vote he carried the tax
but we had it annulled by the United States Court.
It was never collected and the railroad was never
built. In the meantime General Forrest had resumed
his citizenship in Memphis, Tennessee, became a fol-
lower of the Meek and Lowly Jesus, and Dr. Stain-
back, his pastor, told me some time after the death of
General Forrest that he was with him when he died
and that he never saw a more beautiful death-bed
scene in all his life than was that of General Forrest.

"He said that the General was truly a converted
man and died in the full and real hope of a man who
'had been born again.'

"May I add that General Forrest neither drank in-
toxicants or used tobacco in any form during all his
life, but strictly abstained from everything of this
kind.

"I not only served under General Forrest in the
Southern Army and then learned to love and honor
him, but have always believed him to be the greatest
military genius of the war.

"General Forrest was Grand Wizard of the In-

94 AUTHENTIC HISTORY

visible Empire (of the Ku Klux Klan) and while
attempting to build this railroad he found conditions
so unbearable in Mississippi on account of the recon-
struction measures of the general government that he
personally organized the Realm of Mississippi, and
I served under him as one of the officers of the Realm
of Mississippi and am proud of it, he having ap-
pointed me.

"General James Z. George was appointed by Gen-
eral Forrest Grand Dragon of the Realm of Mis-
sissippi, 'Invisible Empire.' "

Mrs. Chattie A. Beall, wife of Captain Fred
Beall, was born January 13, 1842, and was a
daughter of Peter and Mariah McEachin of Floral
College in the vicinity of Lumberton, North Caro-
lina, and married Captain Fred Beall in West Point,
Mississippi, November 24, 1874. Before her mar-
riage, she was correspondent for magazines and large
and popular newspapers. She wrote stories and in
this respect acquired much popularity. She was of
the social staff of the Picayune and Times-Democrat
of New Orleans, the Memphis Appeal, the Birming-
ham-Age Herald, Mobile Register, and the local
papers of West Point, Mississippi, under the name
"Dora Dunbar," and other noms de plume. She
wrote poetry and set it to music and is a most
accomplished musician. She is a devoted Christian,
an active worker in temperance, but was heartily
opposed to woman's suffrage. She made the Ku Klux
regalia for her husband, and other Klansmen.

Mrs. Beall's ancestors were Scotch. She loves

KU KLUX KLAN, 1865-1877 95

the South and Southern people, but bears no ill will
towards the people of the North. She recognizes the
great services of the Ku Klux Klan and claims that
they saved the civilization of the South. Captain
Beall says of his beloved wife: "In my opinion she
is the greatest woman who ever lived."

V.
FOURTH OF JULY PARADES.

On the day appointed by General Forrest at the
Convention, for the first general parade throughout
the South of the Ku Klux Klan, the streets were
strewn with slips of paper and notices posted along
the highways, "Ku Klux Klan will parade tonight."
Throngs of people came to points of vantage to see
the parade. A sky-rocket sent up was the signal
for the Ku Klux Klans to move. The necessary
orders were given by signals from the whistles which
the Ku Klux Klan had adopted. With funereal
slowness the white clad masked men marched and
countermarched.

Curiosity which had brought out the great crowds
of people was not gratified. Those who had eome
with the hope of finding out who were the Ku Klux
Klan, were disappointed. For they appeared and
disappeared as silently as though they were spirits
from the nearby battlefield. The horses as well as
their riders were completely disguised in white.

The parades exerted a terrifying and wholesome
influence over the lawless element throughout the
South.

General Nathan B. Forrest paraded for the first
time with the Ku Klux Klan at Pulaski, Tennessee,

KU KLUX KLAN, 1865-1877 97

and initiated the original Ku Klux Klan into some of
his tactics which had won such fame for him during
the Civil War; elusive tactics, marching and counter-
marching in such a manner as to bewilder the eye-
witnesses and lead them into believing that there
were many thousands of men, while in reality there
were only a few hundred. He then rode to Athens,
Alabama, accompanied by members of that Ku Klux
Klan, which was twenty-five miles from Pulaski, and
reached there about midnight, where he began re-
enacting the tactics which he originally employed at
the "Battle of Athens."

One of the incidents of the Athens parade was
recently told me by the wife of one of the Athens
Ku Klux Klan, that there lived in Athens a Northern
man and woman who had been residents of the town
for many years before the Civil War, and on account
of their age and good conduct had never been molested
during the entire period of the War, and had not
been afraid of the Confederate soldiers.

But on seeing the Ku Klux Klan as they rode
around the Court House square on which stood the
burned walls of the Court House, which had been
destroyed during the Civil War by Federal soldiers,
and which weird background reflected by the torch-
lights carried by the Ku Klux Klan, was a scene cal-
culated to appall the stoutest heart, the Northern
woman who was a Catholic, ran to and fro, praying
to the "Virgin Mary" and counting her beads. Her
husband came to her and said : "For God's sake stop
counting your beads and go straight to Jesus Christ,

98 AUTHENTIC HISTORY

for no Yankees are safe here with these spirits of
the dead Confederates."

The woman who told me said she went to the couple
and assured them that no harm should come to them,
but the old gentleman said : "I have never been afraid
of the living Confederates, but I am of these dead
ones." The woman herself, who was trying to com-
fort and allay the fright of the old people, admitted
that she felt the power and mystery of the Ku Klux
Klan, although she knew that her own husband was
one of them, parading, as she had made his uniform.

The first simultaneous parades of the Ku Klux
Klan, came and went, "like wraiths in the night," and
left a profound impression on the people through-
out the country. Many things had happened pre-
vious to these parades which had aroused the entire
south and caused bitterness and resentment such as
had never been engendered by the War, and the
people felt that the Ku Klux Klan was a serious or-
ganization and that their power would be invaluable
to them in correcting these conditions.

The most important of these unjust acts was
the interference of the general government with pub-
lic worship in the State of Alabama. This had heen a
subject of great excitement and controversy since
June 1865, when the Right Rev. Richard Hooker
Wilmer, Bishop of Alabama, in a letter to the clergy
and laity issued his famous pastoral circular which is
quoted in General Order No. 38, the Order which
struck at the foundation of religious liberty by the
United States Government.

KU KLUX KLAN, 1865-1877 99

Headquarters.
Department of Alabama.

Mobile, Ala., Sept. 20, 1865.
General Orders. No. 38 :

"The Protestant Episcopal Church of the United
States has established a form of Prayer to be used
for the President of the United States and all in
Civil Authority. During the continuance of the late
wicked and groundless rebellion, the prayer was
changed to one for the President of the Confederate
States, and, so altered, was used in the Protestant
Episcopal churches of the Diocese of Alabama.

"Since the 'lapse' of the Confederate Government
and the restoration of the authority of the United
States over the late rebellious States the prayer for
the President has been altogether omitted in the
Episcopal churches of Alabama.

"This omission was recommended by the Right
Rev. Richard Hooker Wilmer, Bishop of Alabama,
in a letter to the clergy and laity, dated June 20,
1865. The only reason given by Bishop Wilmer for
the omission of the prayer, which, to use his own
language, was established by the highest ecclesiastical
authorities, and has for many years constituted a part
of the Liturgy of the Church, is stated by him in the
following words :

" 'Now, the Church in this country has established
a form of prayer for the President and all in civil
authority. The language of the prayer was selected
by careful reference to the subject of the prayer —

100 AUTHENTIC HISTORY

"All in Civil Authority"; and she desires for that
authority prosperity and long continuance. No one
can reasonably be expected to desire a long contin-
uance of military rule. Therefore the prayer is alto-
gether inappropriate and inapplicable to the present
conditions of things, when no civil authority exists
in the exercise of its functions. Hence, as I remarked
in the Circular, "we may yield a true allegiance to,
and sincerely pray for grace, wisdom and understand-
ing in behalf of, a government founded upon force,
while at the same time we could not in good con-
science ask for its continuance, prosperity," ' etc., etc.

"It will be observed from this extract — 1st, That
the Bishop, because he cannot pray for the continu-
ance of 'military rule/ therefore declines to pray for
those in authority. 2nd, He declares the prayer
inappropriate because no civil authority (exists) in
the exercise of its functions.

"On the 20th of June, the date of this letter, there
was a President of the United States, a Cabinet,
Judges of the Supreme Court, and thousands of
other civil officers of the United States, all in the ex-
ercise of their functions. It was for them specially
that this form of prayer was established, yet the
Bishop cannot among all these find any subject
worthy of his prayers. Since the publication of this
letter a Civil Governor has been appointed for the
State of Alabama, and in every county, Judges and
Sheriffs have been appointed, and all these are, and
for weeks have been, in the exercise of their functions;
yet the prayer has not been restored.

CAPT. WILLIAM RICHARDSON

of Alabama, who suggested that General Nathan, B. Forrest be
invited to become the leader of the Ku Klux Klan.

KU KLUX KLAN, 1865-1877 101

"The prayer which the Bishop advised to be
omitted is not a prayer for the continuance of mili-
tary rule, or the continuance of any particular form
of government, or any particular person in power.
It is simply a prayer for the temporal and spiritual
weal of the persons in whose behalf it is offered.

"It is a prayer to the High and Mighty Ruler of
the Universe that He would with His power behold
and bless the President of the United States and all
others in authority — that He would replenish them
with the grace of His Holy Spirit that they may
always incline to His will and walk in His ways ; that
He would endow them plenteously with heavenly
gifts, grant them in health and prosperity, long to
live, and finally after this life to attain everlasting
joy and felicity. It is a prayer at once applicable
and appropriate, and which any heart not filled with
hatred, malice, and all uncharitableness, could con-
scientiously offer.

"The advice of the Bishop to omit the prayer, and
its omission by the clergy, is not only a violation of
the canons of the Church, but shows a factious and
disloyal spirit, and is a marked insult to every loyal
citizen within the Department. Such men are unsafe
teachers, and not to be trusted in places of power and
influence over public opinion.

"It is therefore ordered, pursuant to the instruc-
tions of Major General Thomas, commanding mili-
tary Division of Tennessee, that said Richard Wil-
mer, Bishop of the Protestant Episcopal Church of
the Diocese of Alabama, and the Protestant Episco-

102 AUTHENTIC HISTORY

pal clergy of said diocese, be, and they are hereby
forbidden to preach or perform divine service, and
that their places of worship be closed until such a time
as said Bishop and clergy show a sincere return to
their allegiance to the Government of the United
States, and give evidence of a loyal and patriotic
spirit by offering to resume the use of the prayer for
the President of the United States and all in civil
authority, and by taking the amnesty oath prescribed
by the President.

"This prohibition shall continue in each individual
case until special application is made through the
military channels of these headquarters for permis-
sion to preach and perform divine service, and until
such application is approved at these or superior
headquarters.

"District commanders are required to see that this
order is carried into effect.

"By order of Major General Charles R. Wood.
"Fred H. Wilson, A.A.G."

Bishop Richard Hooker Wilmer (known as the
"Rebel Bishop" as he was the only Bishop conse-
crated during the Civil War,) said to General Wood:

"No one can be expected to pray for a continuance
of military rule."

He then asked to have the order rescinded, but his
request was refused.

Bishop Wilmer went to Washington on his own ini-
tiative to call on the President in person and report
this condition.

KU KLUX KLAN, 1865-1877 103

He said to the President: "The Constitution pro-
hibits Congress from interfering with religious wor-
ship, and I ask you to see to it that Congress not be
allowed through either of her arms, civil or military,
to do what is prohibited to herself."

He asked that General Order No. 38 be rescinded,
which President Johnson ordered the General in
Command to do.

This act was indelibly impressed not alone upon
the history of the Church of which Bishop Wilmer
was so conspicuous a leader, but upon the history of
our country as relates to church and state, which was
separated by the founders of this country and sets a
precedent for all time to come ; and, in the words of
the Right Rev. William S. Perry, Bishop of Iowa,
historian of this Church: "This action of the Bishop
established for all time to come in this land at least,
the principle that in 'Spiritualities' the Church's rule
is supreme."

Bishop Wilmer's clear-headed courage in dealing
with this separation of Church and State challenged
the admiration and cooperation of Father Abram
Ryan who was a Virginian, as was Bishop Wilmer;
and, the brave stand of these two great Southerners
was perhaps one of the most potent powers in the
growth of the Ku Klux Klan as they felt their very
inherent rights were threatened. The Ku Klux Klan
guarded his churches while Bishop Wilmer prayed
in Alabama. I was informed by Bishop Richard H.
Wilmer that he was Chaplain of the Ku Klux Klan
for the Realm of Alabama, and that Father Abram

104 AUTHENTIC HISTORY

Ryan was the Chaplain of the "Invisible Empire."
This last fact was also given me by Mrs. Josephine
Upshaw, a Catholic, who was a close friend of
Father Ryan, and by Mrs. Henry J. Pepin, a
Catholic, at whose home the Ku Klux Klan held
meetings attended by Father Ryan, at Athens, Ala-
bama, and by Colonel Sumner A. Cunningham.
Abram Joseph Ryan was born in Norfolk, Virginia,
1839, and died in Louisville, Ky., 1886. He was a
Catholic priest, a chaplain in the Confederate States
Army, and Chaplain-in-chief of the "Invisible Em-
pire,' ' and did great work for the Ku Klux Klan.
He was an editor and poet. His high literary gifts,
which he used to glorify his beloved South, have given
him an imperishable fame and place as a poet.
Father Ryan wrote his immortal poem, "The Con-
quered Banner," just after General Robert E. Lee's
surrender.

I was also given the fact that Father Ryan was the
Chaplain of the "Invisible Empire" by General John
B. Gordon and other Ku Klux Klansmen.

The consensus of opinion of all the most influential
Ku Klux whom I have interviewed, was, that had not
the Churches of the South, in their separation, as
was done by the Episcopalians, Presbyterians, Meth-
odists and Baptists, been interfered with in their wor-
ship, and bitterly criticized by the Northern branch
from which they had severed themselves, there would
not have been such strength developed in the Ku
Klux Klan, for among their number will be found

KU KLUX KLAN, 1865-1877 105

the most distinguished leaders of all these Churches
who felt the sting of the injustice done them on ac-
count of this separation which was caused by the
Civil War.

In a letter written in 1866 by Bishop Wilmer to
Bishop Hopkins of Vermont, giving reasons why the
Episcopal Church South could not rejoin that of the
North, he said :

"Nor can we, by our silent presence, be faithless
to the memory of our dead; nor can we consent to
stand by, while others inscribe ' Traitor' on their tomb-
stones."

At the time of the Convention there were only a
few Ku Klux Klans comprising several hundreds out-
side of Tennessee and Alabama. On the night of the
Fourth of July Parades, 1867, as stated by General
Forrest later, as a witness before the Congressional
Committee, investigating the Ku Klux Klan, the
Order had so increased as to attract country-wide
attention.

By 1869 conditions had become intolerable in the
South. Governor Brownlow of the State of Ten-
nessee had armed the negroes, in addition to the white
troops already stationed in the South, and directed
them to fire on the Ku Klux Klan wherever seen.

This Order, No. 38, coupled with the fact that out-
rages were being committed under the disguise of the
Ku Klux Klan in regions far removed from where the
Klan existed, forced the Ku Klux Klan to print and
publish General Order No. 1.

106 AUTHENTIC HISTORY

Headquarters Realm No. 1. (Tennessee.)
Dreadful Era, Black Epoch.

Dreadful Hour.

Whereas, Information of an authentic character
has reached these headquarters that the blacks in the
counties of Marshall, Maury, Giles and Lawrence
( Term. ) , are organized into military companies, with
the avowed purpose to make war upon and extermi-
nate the Ku Klux Klan, said blacks are hereby
solemnly warned and ordered to desist from further
action in such organizations, if they exist.

The G. D. (Grand Dragon) regrets the necessity
of such an order. But this Ku Klux Klan shall not
be outraged and interfered with by lawless negroes
and meaner white men, who do not and never have
understood our purposes.

In the first place this Ku Klux Klan is not an insti-
tution of violence, lawlessness and cruelty; it is not
lawless; it is not aggressive; it is not military; it is not
revolutionary.

It is, essentially, originally and inherently a pro-
tective organization. It proposes to execute law in-
stead of resisting it; and to protect all good men,
whether white or black, from the outrages and atroci-
ties of bad men of both colors, who have been for the
past three years a terror to society, and an injury
to us all.

The blacks seem to be impressed with the belief
that this Ku Klux Klan is especially their enemy.
We are not the enemy of the blacks, as long as they
behave themselves, make no threats upon us, and do

KU KLUX KLAN, 1865-1877 107

not attack or interfere with us ; but if they make war
upon us they must abide the awful retribution that
will follow.

This Ku Klux Klan, while in its peaceful move-
ments, and disturbing no one, has been fired into three
times. This will not be endured any longer; and if it
occurs again, and the parties be discovered, a re-
morseless vengeance will be wreaked upon them.

We reiterate that we are for peace and law and
order. No man, white or black, shall be molested
for his political sentiments. This Ku Klux Klan is
not a political party ; it is not a military party ; it is a
protective organization, and will never use violence
except in resisting violence.

Outrages have been perpetrated by irresponsible
parties in the name of the Ku Klux Klan. Should
such parties be apprehended, they will be dealt with
in a manner to insure us future exemption from such
imposition. These impostors have, in some instances,
whipped negroes. This is wrong! Wrong! It is
denounced by this Klan as it must be by all good and
humane men.

The Ku Klux Klan, now as in the past, is pro-
hibited from doing such things. We are striving to
protect all good, peaceful, well-disposed and law-
abiding men, whether white or black.

The G. D. deems this order due to the public, due
to the Ku Klux Klan, and due to those who are mis-
guided and misinformed. We therefore, request that
all newspapers who are friendly to law, and peace,
and the public welfare, will publish the same.

108 AUTHENTIC HISTORY

By order of the G. D., Realm No. 1.
By the Grand Scribe.

The Scribe was Capt. John B. Kennedy, and he
gave me this Order for this history.

The Ku Klux Klan regretted the necessity for
having to print or publish this General Order No. 1,
because the "Interdiction" of the Ku Klux Klan pro-
hibited any written or printed matter other than
notices of their parades.

Following is the original Interdiction, given me a
few years before his death, by Captain John B.
Kennedy, one of the original Ku Klux Klan:

"The origin, mystery and Ritual of the Ku Klux
Klan shall never be written, but the same shall be
communicated orally and memorized by each mem-
ber."

VI.
TENNESSEE ANTI-KU KLUX LAW.

Many deeds of disorder occurring throughout the
South, it became evident to the Ku Klux Klan that
there were bogus organizations using their disguises,
in order to shield themselves from detection in com-
mitting crimes and to throw the blame on the Ku
Klux Klan, so they had a new problem to face and
they handled it in such a manner as to have proof
positive that they were being imposed upon by men
sent there from the North to make it appear that the
Ku Klux were disturbing the peace.

In many instances when men who could not give
the Ku Klux Klan grips and pass-words were
stripped of their disguises, it was found that they were
negroes or "Brownlow Republicans." The Ku Klux
would have them arrested by the very men whom they
represented. This condition developed so rapidly and
bore so directly upon "Brownlow's Loyal Men" that
the anti-Ku Klux Laws were passed by "Parson
Brownlow's" party of Tennessee, hoping thereby to
prevent all men from disguising.

Growing out of this situation in September 1868,
the legislature of Tennessee was called by Governor
Brownlow in extra session, and passed a most strin-
gent and bloody Anti-Ku Klux statute. This was

109

110 AUTHENTIC HISTORY

the climax of the most infamous legislation against
the ex-Confederates and Southern sympathizers
which ever disgraced the statute books of any country.

This unconstitutional legislation began in 1865, in
the passage of the Alien and Sedition Act, and cul-
minated in the passage of the Anti-Ku Klux statute
in 1868, a statute directed against any secret organi-
zation, disguised or otherwise. This statute was un-
constitutional, anarchistic and was one of the chief
reasons for the spread of the Ku Klux Klan, as it
aimed at the very life and liberty of the people of the
South.

The Anti-Ku Klux Law is quoted in full, as fol-
lows:

Sec. I. BE IT ENACTED, BY THE GEN-
ERAL ASSEMBLY OF TENNESSEE, That
if any person or persons shall unite with, associate
with, promote or encourage any secret organization
of persons who shall prowl through the country or
towns of this State, by day or by night, disguised or
otherwise, for the purpose of disturbing the peace, or
alarming the peaceable citizens of any portion of this
State, on conviction by any tribunal of this State,
shall be fined not less than five hundred dollars, im-
prisoned in the penitentiary not less than five years,
and shall be rendered infamous.

Sec. 2. BE IT FURTHER ENACTED, That
it shall be the duty of all the courts in this State, be-
fore the impaneling of any grand jury or petit jury
in any cause whatever, to inquire of the juror on oath,
whether he shall be associated in any way obnoxious

KU KLUX KLAN, 1865-1877 HI

to the first section of this act; and if such juror shall
decline to give a voluntary answer, or shall answer
affirmatively, such persons shall be disqualified as a
juror in any case in any court in this State.

Sec. 3. BE IT FURTHER ENACTED, That,
for the purpose of facilitating the execution of the
provisions of this act, it shall be the duty of the Prose-
cuting Attorneys of this State or grand jurors, or
either of them, to summon or cause to be summoned,
any persons he shall have a well-grounded belief has
any knowledge of such organization as described by
the first section of this act, and if any person shall
fail or refuse to obey such summons, or shall appear
and refuse to testify, such persons so summoned shall
suffer the penalty imposed by the first section of this
act; and if such witness shall avoid the service of
said subpoena or summons, the sheriff or other offi-
cer, shall return such fact on said process, when the
court shall order a copy of said process to be left at
the last place of residence of such person sought to
be summoned ; and if such person shall fail to appear
according to the command of said process, said court
shall enter a judgment NISI against such person
for the sum of five hundred dollars, for which, SCI.
FA. shall issue, as in other cases of forfeiture of
subpoena.

Sec. 4. BE IT FURTHER ENACTED, That
no prosecutor shall be required on any indictment
under the provisions of this act; and all the courts
of this State shall give a remedial construction to the
same; and that no presentment or indictment shall

112 AUTHENTIC HISTORY

be quashed, or declared insufficient for want of form.

Sec. 5. BE IT FURTHER ENACTED, That
it shall be the duty of all the courts of the State,
at every term, for two years from and after the pas-
sage of this act, to call before it all the officers thereof,
who shall be sworn, and have this act read or ex-
plained to them; and the court shall ask said officers
if they shall have any knowledge of any person of
the State, or out of it, that shall be guilty of any of
the offenses contained in this act, and that, if at any
time they shall come to such knowledge, or shall have
a well-grounded belief that any person or persons
shall be guilty of a violation of this act or any of its
provisions, that they will immediately inform the
Prosecuting Attorney for the State thereof; and if
such Prosecuting Attorney, upon being so informed,
shall fail, refuse or neglect to prosecute sjich person
or persons so informed on, he shall be subject to the
same penalties imposed by the first section of this
act, and shall be stricken from the roll of attorneys in
said court.

Sec 6. BE IT FURTHER ENACTED, That
if any officer, or other person, shall inform any other
person that he or she is to be summoned as a witness
under any of the provisions of this act, or any other
statute or law of this State, with the intent and for
the purpose of defeating any of the provisions of
this act, or any criminal law of this State; or if any
officer, clerk, sheriff or constable shall refuse or fail
to perform any of the duties imposed by this Act,
upon conviction, shall suffer the penalties by the first

KU KLUX KLAN, 1865-1877 113

section of this act, and shall be disqualified from hold-
ing office in this State for two years.

Sec. 7. BE IT FURTHER ENACTED, That
if any person shall voluntarily inform on any person
guilty of any of the provisions of this act, upon con-
viction, such informant shall be entitled and receive
one-half of the fine imposed ; and if any officer, three-
fourths.

Sec. 8. BE IT FURTHER ENACTED, That
if any person, guilty of any of the provisions or of-
fenses enumerated in this act, that shall appear before
any jury or prosecuting officer of the State, and shall
inform him or them of any offense committed by any
person or persons against the criminal laws of this
State, such person or witness shall not be bound to
answer to any charge for the violations of any pro-
visions of any law about which such person or witness
shall be examined; and the court shall protect such'
witness from any prosecution whatever.

Sec. 9. BE IT FURTHER ENACTED, That
where any process shall be issued against the person
or any citizen in any county of this State for any vio-
lations of the provisions of this act, and such shall be
returned not executed, for any cause whatever, by the
sheriff or other officer, to the court from which it was
issued, with an affidavit appended thereto, plainly
setting forth the reason for the non-execution of such
process, then it shall be the duty of the clerk, without
delay to issue an ALIAS CAPIAS to the same
county, if the home of the defendant shall be in said
county, either in part or in whole, when said sheriff

114 AUTHENTIC HISTORY

or other officer shall give notice to the inhabitants of
said county by posting such notice at the court house
of said county, of the existence of said capias; and
if the inhabitants of such county shall permit such
defendant to be or to live in said county, in part or in
whole, the inhabitants shall be subject to an assess-
ment of not less than five hundred dollars, nor more
than five thousand dollars, at the discretion of the
court, which said assessment shall be made in the
following manner, to-wit : When the sheriff or other
officer shall return his ALIAS CAPIAS, showing
that said defendant is an inhabitant of said county,
in part, or in whole, and that the citizens thereof have
failed or refused to arrest said defendant, which every
citizen is authorized hereby to do or perform, said
court shall order SCI. FA. to issue to the proper
officer to make known to the chairman, judge or other
presiding officer of the County Court, to appear and
show cause why final judgment should not have been
entered up accordingly; which if any County Court
fails or refuses to do and perform, any judge in va-
cation, shall grant a MANDAMUS to compel said
County Court to assess and collect said assessment,
to be paid into the State treasury for the benefit of
the school fund; provided, said assessment shall not
be made of the sheriff or other officer, upon the re-
turn of the original, or ALIAS writs, show cause why
the same cannot be executed, which may be done by
his affidavit and two respectable witnesses known to
the court as such.

Sec. 10. BE IT FURTHER ENACTED, That

KU KLUX KLAN, 1865-1877 115

all the inhabitants in this State shall be authorized
to arrest any person defendant, under the provisions
of this act, in any county in this State without
process.

Sec. 11. BE IT FURTHER ENACTED, That
if any person or persons shall write, publish, advise,
entreat or persuade, privately or publicly, any class
of persons, or any individual, to resist any of the laws
of this State calculated to molest or disturb the good
people and peaceable citizens of the State, such per-
sons shall be subject to the penalties of the first sec-
tion of this act ; and if an attorney at law, he shall be
stricken from the roll of attorneys, and be prevented
from practicing in any court in this State.

Sec. 12. BE IT FURTHER ENACTED, That
if any person shall make threats against any elector
or person authorized to exercise the elective franchise,
with the intention of intimidating or preventing such
person or persons from attending any election in this
State, they shall be subject to the penalties inflicted
by the first section of this act.

Sec. 13. BE IT FURTHER ENACTED, That
if any person or persons shall attempt to break up
any election in this State, or advise the same to be
done, with a view of preventing the lawful or quali-
fied citizens of this State from voting, they shall be
subject to the penalties prescribed by the first section
of this act; and the attorney of the State in all convic-
tions under the provisions of this act, shall be en-
titled to a tax fee of one hundred dollars, to be taxed
in the bill of costs, and to be paid by the defendant.

116 AUTHENTIC HISTORY

And the attorney prosecuting for the State shall keep
all information given him a secret, unless it shall be
necessary in the opinion of the court, that the same
should be made public.

Sec. 14. BE IT FURTHER ENACTED, That
it shall be the duty of all the judges in this State to
read this act to the grand juries, and give it especially
in charge to said juries.

Sec. 15. BE IT FURTHER ENACTED, That
the treasurer of this State shall not be authorized to
pay any judge in this State any salary, or to any
clerk, sheriff, or attorney, any fee or bill of costs that
may accrue to such parties under the provisions of
this act until such judge or other officer shall have
filed with the comptroller or treasurer an affidavit
plainly setting forth that he has fully complied with
the provisions of this act.

Sec. 16. BE IT FURTHER ENACTED, That
if any person or citizen of this State shall voluntarily
feed, or lodge, or entertain, or conceal in the woods
or elsewhere any offender known to such person to be
charged with any criminal offense under this act, such
person shall suffer the penalty prescribed by the first
section of this act; provided, that this section shall
not apply to persons who, under the ancient law,
might feed or conceal the party charged.

Sec. 17. BE IT FURTHER ENACTED, That
if any person, guilty of any of the offenses enumer-
ated in this act, shall have, own or possess any real
estate, held by deed or grant, or entry, or by fee, or
entail in law, or equity, the same shall be bound for

p».^«iii '.iiiiii

CAPTAIN DE WITT CLINTON DAVIS

of Alabama, of Forrest's Cavalry who was commissioned by

the K.u Klux Klan to accompany Captain John C. Lester to

extend the invitation to General Nathan B. Forrest to become

the leader.

KU KLUX KLAN, 1865-1877 117

costs, fines or penalties imposed by any of the provi-
sions of this act; and a lien is hereby declared to at-
tach to all estates in law or equity, as above, dating
from the day or night of the commission of the offense,
which fact may be found by the jury trying the cause
or any other jury impaneled for that purpose; and
if in the opinion of the court the defendant has evaded
the law, the jury shall find such fact, and the estate
of the defendant shall be made liable for the cost of
the State; and there shall be no limitation to the
recovery of the same.

Sec. 18. BE IT FURTHER ENACTED, That
if any person or persons shall be guilty of a violation
of any of the provisions of this act, to the prejudice
or injury of any individual, the jury trying the de-
fendant shall, or may find such fact with the amount
of injury sustained which shall be paid to the injured
party or persons entitled to the same, by the laws
of descent of this State, with all costs, and who shall
have the same lien on the property of the defendant
that is possessed or given to the State by this act.

Sec. 19. BE IT FURTHER ENACTED, That
if any person shall knowingly make or cause to be
made, any uniform or regalia, in part or in whole, by
day or night, or shall be found in possession of the
same, he, she or they shall be fined at the discretion
of the court, and shall be rendered infamous.

Sec. 20. BE IT FURTHER ENACTED, That
in addition to the oath prescribed by the constitution
and oath of office every public officer shall swear that
he has never been a member of the organization

118 AUTHENTIC HISTORY

known as the Ku Klux Klan, or other disguised body
of men, contrary to the laws of the State, and that he
has neither directly nor indirectly aided, encouraged,
supported or in any manner countenanced said
organization.

Sec. 21. BE IT FURTHER ENACTED, That
the attorneys or prosecuting officers for the State,
shall be entitled to and receive five per cent on all
forfeitures or assessments made by this act, on com-
pensations to be paid by the defendant.

Sec. 22. BE IT FURTHER ENACTED, That
the standard of damages for injuries to individuals
shall be as follows : For disturbing any of the officers
of the State or any other person, by entering the
house or houses, or place of residence of any such
individual in the night, in a hostile manner, or against
his will, the sum of ten thousand dollars ; and it shall
be lawful for the person so assailed to kill the assail-
ant. For killing any individual in the night twenty
thousand dollars; provided such person killed was
peaceable at that time. That all other injuries shall
be assessed by the court and jury in proportion; and
the court trying said causes may grant as many new
trials as may, in his opinion, be necessary to attain
the end of justice.

Sec. 23. BE IT FURTHER ENACTED, That
all persons present, and not giving immediate infor-
mation on the offenders, shall be regarded as guilty
of a misdemeanor against the law, and shall be pun-
ished accordingly.

Sec. 24. BE IT FURTHER ENACTED, That

KU KLUX KLAN, 1865-1877 119

it shall not be lawful for any persons to publish any-
proffered or pretended order of said secret, unlawful
clans; and any person convicted under any of the
provisions of this act, shall not claim, hold or possess
any property, real or personal, exempt from execu-
tion, fine penalty or costs, under this act; provided,
that nothing herein contained shall be so construed as
to prevent or exempt any person heretofore guilty of
any of the offenses herein contained from the prose-
cution under the law as it now stands. This act to
take effect from after its passage.

The same legislature that passed this law also au-
thorized the Governor to organize a volunteer force
to be known as the "Tennessee State Guards," and
that it should be composed of "loyal men," and to be
"loyal" in Tennesse was to be a "Brownlow Republi-
can" and endorse such laws as the Anti-Ku Klux and
Militia Laws.

Under the Militia Law on the recommendation of
ten Union men that troops were needed, the Governor
could declare martial law in such counties as he chose,
and this law provided that the expense of these troops
should be collected from the people of the counties in
which they were quartered. The "Tennessee State
Guards" did go to several counties and commenced
shooting on the Ku Klux Klan which was directly
responsible for the issuing of the Klan's General
Order No. 1, as previously stated.

After the passage of the Anti-Ku Klux Law many
men were arrested throughout the South but "no sin-
gle instance occurred of the arrest of a disguised man

120 AUTHENTIC HISTORY

who, when stripped of his mask, was found to be an
original Ku Klux." The most famous of the trials of
these men were held in Alabama and South Carolina
at a cost' of many millions of dollars to the Federal
Government, without a single conviction of a Ku
Klux of the real Order.

The sending of troops to Union City, Tennessee,
led to the Ku Klux Klan guarding the town, and pa-
troling the county day and night. During the time
this situation obtained, a negro who was a stranger in
the community, criminally assaulted a woman seventy
years of age and attempted to murder her. The Ku
Klux, fifteen hundred strong, pursued the negro man
over the Kentucky line before they captured him.
They then returned with him to Obion County where
the crime was committed, and within a few hundred
yards of where the Federal Troops were quartered,
built a scaffold on which to hang him. But the
woman's son, who was one of the Ku Klux, demanded
that he be allowed to kill him and quietly walking to
a nearby house, borrowed an axe and returning took
the negro, and placing his head on a stump, severed
it from his body. Not wishing to have the Ku Klux
held responsible for this act, he had taken off his
regalia, and he took the negro's head to the command-
ing officer of the Militia, held high on a spike. The
officer who made no attempt to arrest him told him
that he would have done the same thing had his
mother been the victim of that crime.

The enactment of the Tennessee Anti-Ku Klux
Laws caused General Forrest to resort to his war-

KU KLUX KLAN, 1865-1877 121

time tactics and he ostensibly suspended activities of
the Ku Klux Klan in the way of parades and other
public demonstrations, as this law would even operate
in the punishment of the women who had made the
regalia for them.

These laws served only on the one hand to intensify
the license of the unlawful, and on the other to drive
the Ku Klux Klan into more secret but determined
activities.

William P. ("Parson") Brownlow, the radical
Governor of Tennessee, who passed these laws, made
the following statement at a Convention in New
York City, during reconstruction:

"If I had the power I would arm every wolf, pan-
ther, catamount and bear in the mountains of America,
every crocodile in the swamps of Florida, every negro
in the South, every devil in Hell, clothe them in the
uniform of the Federal army, and turn them loose
on the rebels of the South and exterminate every man,
woman and child, south of Mason and Dixon's line.
I would like to see negro troops under Ben Butler
crowd every rebel into the Gulf of Mexico, and drown
them as the devil did the hogs in the Sea of Galilee."
He said, at a public meeting in Philadelphia, just
after the surrender of General Robert E. Lee: "I
am one of those who believe the war ended too soon.
We have whipped the South but not enough. The
loyal masses constitute an overwhelming majority of
the people of this country and they intend to march
again on the South and intend that the "second war"
shall be no child's play. The "second army" will, as

122 AUTHENTIC HISTORY

they ought to, make the entire South as God found
the earth, without form, and void."

Such "Salesmen of Hate" as Brownlow and Henry
Ward Beecher and others, who were disseminating
this withering blight through the North against the
South had only one thing in mind, that the Govern-
ment would attempt a negro republic in the Southern
States, after killing all the white people, that such
people as they would be able to exploit the free
negroes and fill their pockets with their earnings.

The Ku Klux Klan— by the help of God— out-
witted these fiends in human form, and saved the
South and its noble traditions, even the Powers of
Darkness, led by them, could not prevail against the
men of the "Invisible Empire."

The views of the Minority of the Committee to
Investigate Affairs in the Southern States given to
the United States Senate, March 10, 1871, signed by
Frank P. Blair, and T. F. Bayard, contain this state-
ment with regard to the officials of the United States
Government at that time: "From cruel men they are
transformed into savage beasts, with no vestige of
reason left, but what serves to furnish the invention
and refinement of ferocious subtlety for purposes of
which beasts are incapable and at which fiends would
blush."

Among the firebrands of hate for the South sown
throughout this country and Europe at that time was
a book, "Uncle Tom's Cabin," written by that merce-
nary, Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe, a shrewd Yankee
woman who many years before the Civil War was in

KU KLUX KLAN, 1865-1877 12a

need of money and conceived that novel which led to
this war. In 1853 Dr. A. Woodward, a Northern
man who lived in Knoxville, Tennessee, in a review
of this book, said: "Should Mrs. Stowe's vile asper-
sion of Southern character and her loose, reckless and
wicked misrepresentations of the institution of slavery
ever become accredited in the Northern section of our
country, I fear the consequences. I will not say that
Mrs. Stowe had designs on the liberty of her country
but, in writing 'Uncle Tom's Cabin,' she gave much
comfort to England, who is thankful to her as she is
being now royally entertained there."

Henry Ward Beecher, Mrs. Stowe's brother, said,
during re-construction: "The negro is superior to the
white race. If the latter do not forget their pride of
race and color, and amalgamate with the purer and
richer blood of the blacks, they will die out and wither
away in unprolific skinniness."

Wendell Phillips said, from Henry Ward
Beecher's church, about the Civil War, just after the
surrender: "I know it means something like barbarian
conquest, I will allow, but I do not believe there will
be any peace until 347,000 men of the South are either
hanged or exiled." Such hate as this passing over
the North towards the South led the Ku Klux Klan
to strengthen its numbers continually, that it would
have an "invisible and invincible second army," should
the United States Government attempt to fulfill the
intentions of such men as these, and start a war of
extermination for their benefit.

124 AUTHENTIC HISTORY

Under the leadership of Senator Charles Sumner
of Massachusetts, the Civil Rights Bill was passed at
this time, which authorized the Courts to compel the
Southern people to admit negroes to all public places,
and that negroes should be allowed to serve on juries.
The Ku Klux Klan prevented the operation of this
law in the South until the Supreme Court of the
United States decided that this Civil Rights Bill was
unconstitutional.

Contrary to the Constitution of the United States,
the right of habeas corpus was suspended by the Mili-
tary Commanders, and all these unconstitutional acts
on the part of the United States Government made
it imperative that the Ku Klux Klan press on to their
goal, the saving of the South.

r/ One of the chief reasons for the rapid growth of
the Ku Klux Klan was the feeling of distress on the
part of the Southern people for the capture of
President Jefferson Davis, which occurred on the
tenth of May, 1865. V Mr. Davis was sent to Fortress
Monroe, where he was held and charged with assassi-
nation in connection with the killing of President
Lincoln. Mr. Davis was indicted in the United
States Federal Court for the District of Virginia,
and Horace Greeley, one of the greatest abolitionists,
was one of his bondsmen. Many dates were set by
the United States Government for the trial of Mr.
Davis but the trial never came, for, on the 25th of
December, 1868, President Johnson issued his last
amnesty proclamation and, under this, Mr. Davis was
released from bond and his case dismissed from

mmmmmmm

GENERAL NATHAN BEDFORD FORREST

Confederate States Army, "Wizard of the Saddle," "Grand Wizard of

the Invisible Empire" and the Ku Klux Klan. Delegate to the National

Democratic Convention, July, 1668, at New York City.

£■2

(0 to

ZZZ2 I ■

!> £

to c
•^ CO

KU KLUX KLAN, 1865-1877 125

Court. President Johnson had been informed by the
Ku Klux Klan that they stood ready to attempt the
rescue of Mr. Davis, should he be arraigned for trial.
Captain John C. Lester was sent to deliver this mes-
sage to President Johnson from General Nathan B.
Forrest, and he told me of this fact, and it was re-
stated to me by Major James R. Crowe and Captain
John B. Kennedy, all of them originators of the Ku
Klux Klan.

The Following Order Was the Only One
Written by General Forrest

HEADQUARTERS OF THE
"INVISIBLE EMPIRE"

Dismal Era, 4th Green Day,
Last Hour, C.A.R.N.

(October 20, 1869.)

GENERAL ORDER No. 1.

WHEREAS, The Order of the K. K. K. is in

some localities being perverted from its original
honorable and patriotic purposes;

AND, WHEREAS, Such a perversion of the
Order is in some instances defeating the very objects
of its origin, and is becoming injurious instead of
subservient to the public peace and public safety for
which it was intended, and in some cases is being used
to achieve personal benefit and private purposes, and
to satiate private revenge by means of its masked
features ;

126 AUTHENTIC HISTORY

AND, WHEREAS, Public sentiment is against
a masked organization in the country;

AND, WHEREAS, Their masked features offer
an opportunity to bad men outside of the Order to
depredate and outrage the people in our name;

AND, WHEREAS, A few disobedient and bad
men have gotten into the Order through imprudence
and otherwise, and whose conduct under mask is a
disgrace to the good name and honorable reputation
of the Order:

It is therefore ordered and decreed, that the masks
and costumes of this Order be entirely abolished and
destroyed. And every Grand Cyclops shall as-
semble the men of his Den and require them to de-
stroy in his presence every article of his mask and
costume and at the same time shall destroy his own.
And every man who shall refuse to do so shall be
deemed an enemy of this Order, and shall be treated
accordingly. And every man who shall hereafter be
seen in mask or costume, shall not be known or recog-
nized as a member of this Order, but shall be deemed
an enemy of the same, and for such offense shall suf-
fer the extreme penalty of the law.

This is not to be understood to dissolve tlie Order of
the Ku Kluoo Klan, but it is hereby held more firmly
together and more faithfully bound to each other in
any emergency that may come.

All demonstrations are positively prohibited until
they are ordered by a Grand Titan or higher au-
thority.

The disarming of negroes, except when they may

KU KLUX KLAN, 1865-1877 127

be arming and assembling for insurrectionary pur-
poses, is positively prohibited.

And the whipping of negroes or white men is also
prohibited. This will not be allowed.

All interference in the domestic affairs of families
is prohibited. Such is a prostitution of the Order
from its high and public purposes.

The use of the Order for the achievement of per-
sonal benefit and the gratification of private revenge,
is in all cases prohibited. This Order has nothing
to do with the personal difficulties or private transac-
tions of men. Such is perversion of the Order.

The interference with any man on account of his
political opinions is wrong and positively forbidden.

The terrifying of men to prevent them from col-
lecting their debts, or for any similar purpose, is pro-
hibited under the severest penalty. This is a disgrace
to the Order, and never was for a moment the pur-
pose of the same — it being a public protective
institution and nothing else.

The breaking and invading of jails for the abduc-
tion and execution of criminals is positively and under
all circumstances prohibited. Any 3 one who shall
write letters in the name of this Order to terrify men
for the accomplishment of personal designs shall be
severely punished.

All demonstrations are positively prohibited until
ordered by the authority aforesaid. The profound-
est quiet and deepest secrecy concerning everything
that relates to the Order, shall, at all times be main-
tained. Any man who shall violate this Order shall

128 AUTHENTIC HISTORY

be deemed an enemy to the Order, and shall suffer
the extreme penalty of the law. We must protect
our good name and honor from the disgrace that a
few bad men may desire to bring upon us. And any
man who shall expose this Order or any of the mem-
bers of the same, shall suffer the extreme penalty
of the law as heretofore prescribed.

Every Cyclops will destroy this Order as soon as
read to every member of their Den and Staff.

By command of

THE GRAND WIZARD.

First Genii,

Acting Grand Scribe,

This order as above given was presented to me by
Major Robert Donnell, who was Grand Scribe of
the "Invisible Empire" in 1869, for this history, and
he stated that the Ku Klux Klan was not disbanded
until 1877, but this order was General Forrest's
method of misleading those who were attempting to
dissolve it after the Anti-Ku Klux Act was passed.

VII.
PRESIDENT JOHNSON'S POLICY.

Following Lincoln's death in 1865, President
Johnson was confronted with the restoration of the
Southern States to the Union and with the problems
of reconstruction.

His policy was "that the seceding States not hav-
ing succeeded in their separation from the Union,
had lost their Constitutional rights only while en-
gaged in war," and that the surrender of General
Robert E. Lee gave them their anti-bellum status;
and that they should at once become a part of the
Union, but he was bitter against the leading Confed-
erates, and had Jefferson Davis and other South-
erners arrested.

President Johnson, however, was a Democrat, and
above all, he believed in the United States Constitu-
tion and did his best with the situation which con-
fronted him, to uphold it.

His policy aroused very bitter opposition through-
out the North and caused denunciation in the Halls
of Congress, and brought about the controversy be-
tween the President and Congress. Congress vented
its fury against this just policy by enactment of
articles of impeachment against President Johnson.

129

130 AUTHENTIC HISTORY

Congress asserted that by the act of secession the
States recently engaged in war had forfeited all their
rights under the Constitution ; — not having acknowl-
edged their rebellion until forced to do so at the point
of a bayonet, and that they should be made territorial
possessions governed by Congress until the Southern
people should regard themselves as sufficiently
humbled.

Congress passed the "Civil Rights" Bill and the
"Freedman's Bureau" Bill, and President Johnson
sent a message to Congress in which he said that
they embodied unconstitutional intrusion of the Fed-
eral government into the affairs of the States, and
were a great trend towards centralization of
government.

The discontent over the President's liberal recon-
struction policy needed only a breath to bring about
the effort of his enemies to impeach him. On Feb. 18,
1868, President Johnson sent Edwin M. Stanton an
order removing him from office, and naming Lorenzo
Thomas, Secretary of War. Stanton was appointed
by President Lincoln in 1862, and it was doubtful
whether he could claim protection of the act against
summary ejection by the President. The house
voted on Feb. 24th and adopted a resolution that the
President be impeached of "high crimes and misde-
meanors in office."

The effort to impeach Johnson was emphasized by
the choice of the extremest Radicals in Congress
selected to prosecute his impeachment — Stevens,
Butler, Boutwell, Williams and Logan; the other

KU KLUX KLAN, 1865-1877 131

two members were conservative, Bingham and
Wilson.

The Radicals employed every means to impeach
President Johnson, and any man in Congress who
did not declare himself in favor of impeachment was
spied upon and denounced in the newspapers, and in
the General Conference of the Methodist-Episcopal
Church North.

This interference on the part of the Church was
the first cause of arousing the right thinking people
of the North to the dangerous situation in the govern-
ment at Washington, and was one of the contributing
causes of the failure of impeachment.

The vote on the impeachment of President John-
son was May 16, 1868 and resulted in "Not guilty."
Two-thirds majority being necessary for conviction
he was acquitted by one vote.

The failure of Congress to impeach President
Johnson was due to the votes of seven Senators:
Fessenden, Fowler, Grimes, Ross, Henderson,
Trumbull, and Van Winkle.

The people of the North who had been engaged in
their commercial affairs seemed to have been asleep
during these years when the government at Washing-
ton was drifting on the rocks, and by these impeach-
ment proceedings they were suddenly awakened to
the dangers at hand.

At this time there existed a branch of the Union
League at Washington, called the "Loyal League,"
composed of Radical politicians who were sending
bands of men throughout the South who were imita-

132 AUTHENTIC HISTORY

ting the Ku Klux Klan and were instructed to com-
mit crimes and to foment all kinds of disorder and
confusion to make it impossible for President John-
son to fulfill his office successfully.

"Cupid" recognizes no battle-lines, and many of
the Federal officers and soldiers had won the hearts
and hands of Southern girls during their occupation
of the South.

One instance which bears directly on the Ku Klux
Klan was the marriage of a Federal General, Jesse
J. Phillips, to one of the most brilliant young women,
of the South, a widow, Mrs. Virginia Davis Harris,
of Athens, Ala., after the close of the war. The
General's business frequently took him to Washing-
ton where his splendid war record gave him great
prestige.

On one occasion they were invited to a meeting of
the "Loyal League," which was meeting in the home
of one of the members of Congress.

During this meeting it was decided that the
"Loyal League" name would be changed to the Ku
Klux Klan, and a hideous regalia be adopted, and
that they would send bands of men to imitate the
real Ku Klux Klan, and spread terror and destruc-
tion to life and property throughout the South and
bring back reports to Washington that the genuine
Ku Klux Klan was responsible for it all.

This decision so horrified the General and his
Southern wife, that they soon retired from the meet-
ing and he declined to join the "Loyal League."
He realized that something must be done to save the

■flft .

CAPTAIN ROBERT ANDERSON McCLELLAN

One of the founders of the Athens, Alabama Ku Klux Klan
and a Grand Cyclops.

KU KLUX KLAN, 1865-1877 133

entire country from the treasonable schemes of these
Radical politicians who were planning to undermine
the government. His Southern wife appealed to him
to help her save her loved ones of the Southland from
such diabolism.

She told her husband that she knew President
Johnson personally as he had once lived in Athens,
Alabama, and she suggested that she call on him and
report this scheme to him. He agreed with her that
it might be a good idea and might give the President
a deeper insight into the dangers already besetting
his administration.

Mrs. Philips was received graciously by President
Johnson, when the usher made it known to him that
she was from Athens, Alabama, where he had lived
when a young man.

President Johnson was appalled at the informa-
tion she gave him and assured her that as far as
possible he would not consent to the illegal measures
then being enacted against the South which were
delaying the restoring of the Union.

Previous to this, President Johnson had been mak-
ing speeches which pleased the Radicals because he
would abuse the South and would lose his temper and
cause him to be ridiculed ; suddenly, he quit all abuse
of the Southern aristocrat, began to realize his great
responsibility, and disappointed the Radicals by tak-
ing a firmer stand in his determination to readmit the
States to the Union.

He said to General John A. Logan that the report
brought him by General and Mrs. Philips of the

134 AUTHENTIC HISTORY

treason plotted against the Southern people by the
"Loyal League" had shown him the situation in a
new light. While he sent agents to investigate,
General Grant being one of them, he attached very
little importance to the truth of them, as Grant's
report was so meagre it was almost worthless.

After Mrs. Philips had seen the President, she
left without delay for her former home in the South
to inform the members of the Ku Klux Klan of this
reign of terror planned by the bogus Ku Klux Klan
in Washington, and of President Johnson's astonish-
ment that members of his Cabinet and of Congress,
should be the instigators of it.

The Ku Klux Klan already knew that there were
impostors trying to imitate them. But soon after
this became known to them, they called in consulta-
tion General Forrest and he met them at the Athens
headquarters. A vigilance committee was appointed
to parole every road and be prepared to arrest men
in disguise who could not give the Ku Klux Klan
pass-words and grip. The advent of this bogus Ku
Klux Klan emphasized the fact that no one but the
Ku Klux themselves were in possession of the grip
and pass-word, so the bogus klans could be easily
detected.

President Johnson could not hold his stand against
the Radical Congress, and soon after this Congress
assumed the reconstruction of the Southern States
and destroyed the State governments already operat-
ing and the people of the South were yet to go
through the most diabolical era, and drink deep of

KU KLUX KLAN, 1865-1877 135

the cup of sorrow before her Senators and Repre-
sentatives were allowed to take their seats in the
Congress of the United States, and the States re-
stored to their proper place in the Union.

President Johnson wished to be guided by the
supposed policies of President Lincoln and although
he failed, many of Lincoln's own party thought he
could not have done any better with such a Radical
Congress to deal with.

The South was divided into military districts and
the work of both Lincoln and Johnson regarding the
restoring of the South to the Union was suddenly
undone by Congress which is directly responsible for
the Union being dissolved for many years, and but
for the Ku Klux Klan, that state of affairs might be
in existence today.

The Radical party wished to keep the South in
subjection to strengthen their party by enfranchising
the negroes and disfranchising the white men. So
they suddenly discharged all men who held the civil
offices in the South and put "carpet-baggers" in their
places and this condition continued for several years.

One instance of a legally elected Southerner being
summarily ousted occurred in the fall of 1868, in
Limestone County, Ala., when Captain John B.
McClellan, a Confederate soldier who had lost his
right arm during the Civil War, was displaced by
Silas Thurlow, a carpet-bagger, as Probate Judge of
the county.

The records of the court will show that at the close
of business on Sept. 29, 1868, Judge McClellan's

136 AUTHENTIC HISTORY

signature was attached to legal papers, and next
morning Silas Thurlow arrived in Athens and at the
point of the bayonet in the hands of Federal soldiers,
began signing all legal documents.

Judge McClellan was a Ku Klux and the treat-
ment accorded him greatly incensed the Klan. In
November following this there was a large parade of
the Ku Klux Klan in Huntsville, Ala., and Silas
Thurlow was killed on the streets.

Eye-witnesses testified at the Ku Klux hearings
of the Committee of Congress afterwards held at
Huntsville, that he was shot by the negro soldiers
who were stationed in the Court House. A Federal
general, who was in the hotel across the street and
could see the shooting from his window, testified that
the Ku Klux Klan was not at that time on that part
of the public square.

Judge William Richardson testified at the hearing
that the shot which killed Thurlow came from the
Court House, and not from the direction of the Ku
Klux Klan members to whom he was talking.

This occurred after midnight and when Thurlow
was told that he was dying he said he wanted some-
one to pray for him, but knew there wasn't a Rebel
preacher in that town who would do it, and a gentle-
man went to the home of Mr. Ross, a minister of the
gospel, who came immediately, and prayed for him.

This Huntsville riot, and those occurring in New
Orleans, Memphis, and smaller towns, furnished the
Radicals at Washington with new material against
the South, and the Northern papers published ac-

KU KLUX KLAN, 1865-1877 137

counts under glaring headlines: "Southern Out-
rages/'

The "Eutaw, Alabama, Riot" in 1870, in which the
Ku Klux Klan took a part, and a band of them from
Mississippi killed Alexander Boyd, who was County-
Solicitor, was the cause of great excitement through-
out the country. Mr. Boyd had released from jail
three negroes who had killed a very popular man, Dr.
Samuel Snoddy.

The Ku Klux Klan warned Boyd to leave town,
and when he refused to do so they went to the hotel
where he was living. A fight ensued in which he was
killed. Mr. Boyd's tombstone in the Mesopotamia
Cemetery, Eutaw, Alabama, erected by his uncle,
Judge William Miller, is inscribed "Murdered by
Ku Klux."

In Hale County, Alabama, Jan. 19, 1871, in the
middle of the night a negro aroused the town with the
cry of "Ku Klux!" and he hastened to the room of
Dr. Blackford who was the carpet-bag Probate
Judge and warned him of their approach. Blackford
escaped into the cemetery where he remained for sev-
eral days.

At this time General Forrest was at Greensboro,
Alabama, building the Selma and Memphis Railroad.
He decided that he would lend the much-frightened
man his protection, so he conferred with Blackford
and made arrangements to purchase property he
owned on condition that he resign the office and leave
for parts unknown.

(Governor R. B. Lindsay appointed as Black-

138 AUTHENTIC HISTORY

ford's successor James M. Hobson, father of Captain
Richmond Hobson.) After this great kindness on
the part of the Grand Wizard of the Invisible Em-
pire, Dr. Blackford went to Washington and re-
ported many falsehoods to officials there, charging
the Ku Klux with outrages.

President Lincoln had to contend with Radicals
all during the war, and Johnson fell heir to this
condition. He did not cause it. The opinion of
President Lincoln that Congress had no right to
dictate on reconstruction was criticized by the
Radicals.

The Radical propaganda to exclude the white men
from representation at Washington and to form a
black man's party in the South to strengthen the
Republican party, caused Horace Greeley to say in
the New York Tribune:

"If they carry out their plans to form a black man's
party in the South, they will strike Republicanism
a blow far heavier than Democrats can deal."

The Ku Klux Klan reports sent to Washington
classified all violence in the South, under four heads :
killings, shootings, outrages and whippings; and
every case of crime committed from 1865 to 1871 was
listed in these reports as Ku Klux outrages.

According to these reports it would appear that
all who met violent death were Radicals or negroes,
and the wretched conditions that prevailed seemed
more than human endurance could be called on to
bear, and for several years the people had been hop-
ing and praying that the government at Washington,

KU KLUX KLAN, 1865-1877 139

or that some power on earth would come to their
rescue.

The Ku Klux Klan, seeing no relief in sight, re-
newed their determination to save the South or die
in the attempt. (The fulfillment of this determina-
tion for "white supremacy" came between the years
1890 to 1902 when new election laws and new State
constitutions excluded the negro from the polls and
a white man's government was a reality, and the
Ku Klux Klan had solidified the South politically for
all time to come.)

Negro suffrage while it lasted had to be upheld by
military rule and at last the Ku Klux Klan, caused
both to fail. The success of the Ku Klux Klan was
accomplished in the face of the Ku Klux Act, 1871,
which gave President Grant despotic military power,
and authorized him to declare a state of war if he
deemed it necessary. He used this power in 1871,,
and declared martial law in South Carolina.

The Ku Klux Klan was not organized for political
purposes as some unfair Northern writers contend to
this day, but it was driven into this role by the perse-
cution of the Southern people by the Republican
party in power, which misrepresented conditions in
the South.

When Governor Andrew Johnson made his second
race for governor of Tennessee he was opposed by
Merideth P. Gentry who was the candidate of the
"Knownothing" or American party whose slogan was
"America for Americans." In 1855 this movement

140 AUTHENTIC HISTORY

"Knownothingism" spread very rapidly over the
country, and a presidential ticket was nominated.

This party was founded on the position taken by
many men that the Roman Catholic church through
their priests were interfering with the appointments
of men to office, their efforts being to have Catholics
given the preference and this situation led to the or-
ganizing of the "Knownothings," the name originated
by its members being asked about its activities reply-
ing, "I don't know."

Andrew Johnson spoke four hours against this
movement in his race for governor and said "this
party would shut out Methodists and Presbyterians
from holding office," and the party never revived
again in Tennessee, and failed in electing the presi-
dential ticket and soon went out of existence.

President Andrew Johnson's term was ended when
U. S. Grant was elected, and he returned to his home
in Tennessee, greatly disappointed that all the States
were not in the Union. He was a Union man, and
did go against his State when secession came, and
was the military governor of Tennessee during the
Civil War, but his effort to help the Southern people
in being restored to the Union called for their ex-
pressions of gratitude.

Mr. Johnson was governor of Tennessee for two
terms previous to the Civil War and was considered
an honest man in his convictions, and he believed in
the Constitution of the United States with all his soul.

When Mr, Johnson was inaugurated governor of
Tennessee in 1853 he said in his address: "Democracy

KU KLUX KLAN, 1865-1877 141

and religion are hand-maidens to each other. They
are two converging lines extending from earth to
heaven, where they unite in theocracy."

Ex-President Andrew Johnson was elected to the
United States Senate in 1875. On March 22, 1875
his opportunity came to make his stand on the Con-
stitution in the Louisiana case. The Congressional
Committee read the report :

1. Resolved that there is no state government at
present existing in the state of Louisiana. The com-
mittee report that it is the duty of Congress to act
in the premises.

Mr. Johnson replied to this report in a speech in
which he said "Is this not monstrous in a free gov-
ernment? Is the president the United States?"

The Constitution says, "The United States shall
guarantee to every state in the union, a republican
form of government," and the interference with the
State of Louisiana today by President Grant is
palpable violation of the Constitution of the United
States.

When we go into our theory of government, we
find that all the powers are derived from the people.

The people wear the crown.

Then as patriots, as men who love their country,
who love a government of law, let us unite as a band
of brothers to make one more effort in this period to
restore the Constitution of the United States.

Andrew Johnson died on July 31, 1875 and the
Union was still dissolved and the Ku Klux Klan
heard the echo of this speech and fulfilled his wish

142 AUTHENTIC HISTORY

and finished his avowed task of restoring the Union.

Andrew Johnson was a Mason.

It is said President Johnson never made a speech
without speaking of the United States flag and the
Constitution and had expressed a wish that a flag
be his winding-sheet, and his head-rest the Constitu-
tion. These wishes were carried out. A handsome
flag was wrapped around his body and an old worn
copy of the Constitution he had read placed under
his head, where he rests at Greenville, Tennessee.

In the Opinion given by Senator John B. Hen-
derson during the trial for impeachment of President
Andrew Johnson he said: "If an act to be impeach-
able must be indictable, then it must be urged that
every act which is indictable must be impeachable,
but this has never been pretended. "

Senator Henderson said in regard to the order
issued by President Johnson removing from office
Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton: "The Consti-
tution is silent as to the power of removing officers.
It will be observed that ample provision is made for
filling offices, but no expressed provision is made for
vacating them."

All the authorities have agreed that the power of
removing all appointed officers except Judges of the
Supreme Court who have held by fixed tenure was
vested in the President and could not be withdrawn
by law. It was also a fact that an officer could only
hold for and during the term of the President by
whom he may have been appointed.

"Senator Henderson said in this Opinion "The

KU KLUX KLAN, 1865-1877 143

question is simply one of guilt under the charges as
presented by the House and I cannot in justice to
the laws of the land, in justice to the country or to
my own sense of right render any other response to
the several articles of impeachment than a verdict
'Not guilty.' "

Senator Henderson in this immortal opinion helped
to save to our country republican form of government
as given to us by the Constitution of the United
States and by his masterly leadership on this trying
occasion succeeded in convincing a sufficient number
of senators to prevent the impeachment of President
Andrew Johnson by one vote, and thereby saving the
executive branch of our government.

VIII.
THE FEDERAL KU KLUX ACTS.

When General U. S. Grant became President of
the United States in 1869, and in a speech said:
"Let us have peace," the people of the South were
hopeful that they would be freed from carpet-bag
and negro rule ; but they were doomed to disappoint-
ment. For in 1870 President Grant approved the
first of the Federal Ku Klux Acts, and the second,
in 1871.

In part the Act read as follows:

"If two or more persons shall band or conspire
together, or go in disguise upon the public highway,
or upon the premises of another, with intent to violate
any provision of this Act, or injure, oppress, threaten
or intimidate any citizen with the intention to prevent
or hinder his free exercise or enjoyment of any right
or privilege, granted or secured to him by the Consti-
tution of the United States, or because of his having
exercised the same; such persons shall be guilty of
a felony."

The Act of 1871 provides that: "If two or more
persons within any State or territory of the United
States shall conspire together, or go in disguise upon
the public highway or upon the premises for the pur-
pose either directly or indirectly, of depriving such

144

KU KLUX KLAN, 1865-1877 145

persons of the equal protection of the Laws, each and
every person so offending shall be deemed guilty of
a high crime.

"When such a conspiracy is proven to exist, and
when it further appears that the accused was a mem-
ber of it, the Law holds him responsible for whatever
is done by his co-conspirators in furtherance of the
objects of the corrupt combination, though he him-
self did not advise the particular act or participate
in it, and, although he was completely ignorant of the
intention to commit it, and of the fact of its com-
mission."

Growing out of these Acts were the famous hear-
ings held by a sub-committee of Congress in Alabama
and South Carolina, Mississippi and other States,
and at Washington, D. C.

The trials in Alabama were held in the United
States District Court, Northern District, sitting at
Huntsville, beginning in May, 1872. Many persons
were indicted for violation of the Enforcement Acts
of Congress known as the "Ku Klux Laws" and a
great many of the most distinguished men of the
South were prosecuted by "carpet-bag" District
Attorneys of the United States.

The reports of these trials were sent to the gov-
ernment at Washington, and led to the appointment
by Congress of a committee to investigate con-
ditions in the South, and the sub-committee proceeded
to Huntsville, Alabama.

Among the men who were arrested and tried were
members of the spurious Ku Klux Klan which had

146 AUTHENTIC HISTORY

been formed by the "Loyal League" at Washington
to foment trouble in the South. When these counter-
feit Ku Klux were tried, as in the case of those prose-
cuted by Captain William Richardson at Huntsville,
Ala., when he was employed by the real Ku Klux
Klan, and obtained convictions of these men, the Fed-
eral authorities immediately freed them.

Many other citizens who were not members of
the Ku Klux Klan were arrested, convicted and sent
to the Federal prison.

Thirteen individuals of these spurious Ku Klux
Klaus were convicted in Alabama, and one pleaded
guilty.

The trials and the carpet-baggers in charge of them
were bitterly assailed in the Northern papers at that
time, for the Northern public began to realize the
injustice of the Ku Klux Laws and of the govern-
ment at Washington, and to see the failure of the
Law in reaching the real Ku Klux Klan, and that it
was reacting against their own agents and causing
them to be convicted and sent to the Federal prisons.

These investigations of the sub-committee and
trials of the Ku Klux Klan awakened the whole coun-
try and the thinking men of the North realized the
serious situation in the South and they were very
impatient with the government at Washington.

The Ku Klux Klan were being forced by these cir-
cumstances to add to their numbers and become more
closely affiliated for the common good.

On June 27, 1872, the Mail and Advertiser,

KU KLUX KLAN, 1865-1877 147

(Montgomery, Ala.,) summed up the situation under
the caption, "The Grant Platform."

"The National Statutes enforced are odious, to
break the spirit of our people and make them slaves
to Federal power; that peaceable citizens are
snatched away from their business and homes and
taken to other States in violation of private right and
the Constitution of the land; and that the spy, the
bayonet, the suborned witness, bribed jury, and par-
tisan judge have full sway over the lives and rights
of millions of people; that the whole legislation in
Congress in regard to the South has been one grand
and infamous purpose to subordinate the white man
to the negro; the Reconstruction Acts, the Four-
teenth Amendment, the Ku Klux Acts, all discrim-
inated by reason of race and political creed — that the
Ku Klux 'pretended evils' are Ku Klux goblins, to
correct which the government resorted to unconsti-
tutional laws and interfered with rights not surren-
dered by the people to either State or National
Government."

The investigations of the sub-committee cost the
United States government many millions of dollars
and comprise many volumes of testimony, and not
one of the real Ku Klux Klan was ever convicted.
They tried to convict them by every ruse, by false
witnesses, and by having men appear against them
who held a grudge because they had been refused ad-
mittance to the Ku Klux Klan, and also many igno-
rant negroes were paid to give accounts of beatings
and whippings which had never occurred.

148 AUTHENTIC HISTORY

One instance was of a negro woman who lived on
the plantation of Major John B. Floyd of Limestone
County, Alabama, who told that the Ku Klux Klan
had beaten her baby and herself; and when the real
Ku Klux Klan went to investigate, they found the
baby alive and well, under the cabin floor and brought
it to Huntsville to prove the falsehood. This circum-
stance caused many of the Federal investigators to
change their minds regarding the Ku Klux Klan, and
led them to giving truthful testimony at Washington.

No matter how much this sub-committee discov-
ered concerning the alleged unlawful Ku Klux Klan,
the witnesses, General James H. Clanton among the
number, who was Grand Dragon of the Realm of
Alabama, were ready with facts concerning the acts
of the spurious Ku Klux Klan and other carpet-bag-
gers to show cause why the real Ku Klux Klan was
needed unless conditions improved.

The Joint Select Committee to enquire into the
Conditions of Affairs in the late Insurrectionary
States, was unable to discover any written order, pre-
script, oath or data which had ever been used by the
real Ku Klux Klan, for the reason that it was against
their policy to print anything; all orders being deliv-
ered orally, except General Order No. 1, of Den
No. 1, and General Order No. 1, "Invisible Empire. ,,

All the committees of Congress, all the Federal
attorneys appointed to investigate the Ku Klux Klan,
all the bogus Ku Klux Klans combined, failed utterly
to find any documentary evidence against the origi-

Stone Marker at Athens, Alabama, erected by the Alabama Division,
United Daughters of the Confederacy.

(Contributed for this History
by Miss Mary Mason)

KU KLUX KLAN, 1865-1877 149

nal Ku Klux Klan; and that which was produced
was not genuine.

General Nathan B. Forrest, when being examined
by this Congressional Committee, proved himself a
match for the men who conducted the hearings in
Washington, and not one word from General For-
rest revealed the secrets, the passwords or the grips
of the Ku Klux Klari, for by his masterly strategy
in foiling these shafts of questioning so that none of
the secrets of the real Ku Klux Klan were learned,
he added laurels to the fame he had attained in the
Civil War for his elusive tactics which caused Gen-
eral W. T. Sherman to offer fifty thousand dollars
reward and a Major-Generalship to any Federal
soldier who would kill or capture him, and it goes
without saying that no one received this reward.
This untrained genius of war has been compared to
Alexander, Hannibal, Caesar and Napoleon, and as
the leader of the Ku Klux Klan his name stands for
the justification of the men and women of the "In-
visible Empire."

General Frank P. Blair and Mr. Beck of New
York of the sub-committee of Congress, sitting at
Huntsville, Ala., had summoned before it men of
the highest character — men whose social and politi-
cal standing was unquestioned at the time, and who
in later years filled the highest and most responsible
positions in the government of our country.

Many of the Federal officers who were called upon
to testify before this sub-committee testified in favor
of the real Ku Klux Klan and sustained the Demo-

150 AUTHENTIC HISTORY

crats. Among these was Captain Lionel W. Day of
the United States Army who was clerk of the United
States District Court for Northern Alabama at that
time.

When the biographies of the Ku Klux Klansmen
are read, you will understand why the crimes attrib-
uted to them could not be laid at their door, and at
the same time, all blame must not be charged to the
representatives of the spurious Ku Klux Klans, or
to the negroes for the crimes committed, for, among
the stirring events of the reconstruction period in
Alabama, none were more dreadful than the raids,
thefts and murders by bands of Tories.

The account of these home-bred brands of evil men
would never have been told only when law and order
had no restraining influence upon many men and an
outraged public sentiment had no power, and the au-
thorities at Washington who were supposed to keep
order in the Southern States, were even helpless
against these bi-products of the Civil War who kept
the people in terror, by treason against their own
homes and people.

The people of the South were beset by these bands
of marauders within their own borders, by deserters
from the Confederate Army, by men who had to be
drafted into the Confederate Army, by men taking
advantage of the Ku Klux Klan disguise, by the Fed-
eral authorities' inability to cope with the situation,
and by the actual attitude of the government at
Washington who were plotting and scheming to keep
the South in a state of war for at least thirty years.

KIT KLUX KLAN, 1865-1877 151

With these conditions, is it any wonder that the Ku
Klux Klan continued and grew in strength?

The Ku Klux Klan, during the early 70's, directed
their efforts to assisting the Federal troops and au-
thorities in bringing to justice such of these men as
they could, regardless of their affiliations.

The most notable of the bands who terrorized Lau-
derdale and other counties of Alabama, was led by
Tom Clark, who was a distinctive product of a war-
time outlaw. He had lived on the plantation of Gov-
ernor Hugh McVay before the war. He was quiet
and industrious, but when war came he would not
enlist and was conscripted, and made a member of
Company F, Fourth Alabama Cavalry.

He deserted and became a member of the Sixth
Tennessee, a Federal Regiment, which was com-
manded by Capt. Elias Thrasher, a home-made
Yankee. Many of his men were lawless. Clark de-
serted this Tennessee regiment, taking with him
many of these criminals and formed a band of Tories
and began his reign of terror in North Alabama, hav-
ing them commit rapine, murder and robberies, and
escaped punishment for years.

The Ku Klux Klan captured two of Clark's band
and took them before the Federal authorities under
the command of Captain DeFord at Florence, Ala-
bama, who gave them a military trial and had them
shot.

This is but one of the many instances where the
Ku Klux Klan made every effort to assist the Fed-

152 AUTHENTIC HISTORY

eral government in meting out justice, yet despite all
their efforts no relief came from Washington.

Peaceable law-abiding negroes were often attacked
by these bands of Tories and carpet-baggers, and the
Ku Klux Klan went to their aid each time, taking
with them the faithful negroes to aid them in the
cause of justice, as Judge H. C. Jones did on one
occasion, when with two pistols, and the assistance
of his former slave, Emery Jones, he went to the
rescue of a negro family named Poole, near Florence,
Alabama, who had been cruelly attacked by Tom
Clark's band.

These crimes were all charged in the North to the
Ku Klux Klan, when there was positive proof that
none of the band were Ku Klux, as shown by the
court-martial and execution of Clark's men.

In 1872, Tom Clark was captured and taken to
Florence, Alabama, for trial. Coincident with his
arrest there was a series of robberies beginning at
Murfreesboro, Tennessee, to Athens, Alabama, and
culminating at Florence, where these robbers were
captured and put in jail with Tom Clark. Public
sentiment soon determined to mete out justice to
these criminals without delay.

The horrible deeds of Tom Clark were still fresh
in the minds of the people and they decided to hang
him with the other robbers, who proved to be escaped
criminals from Indiana.

These crimes were heralded through the Northern
press as having been committed by the Ku Klux
Klan. Was it any wonder that the men of the South,

KU KLUX KLAN, 1865-1877 153

composing the real Ku Klux Klan, were losing all
patience with this misrepresentation?

A committee of the Ku Klux Klan went to Wash-
ington and explained fully to President Grant the
existing conditions in the South, but he turned a deaf
ear to all their appeals.

The Anti-Ku Klux Acts were said to be for the en-
forcement of the 14th and 15th Amendments, but
they were really aimed at the Ku Klux Klan, the
excuse being that the Ku Klux Klan would keep the
negroes from voting. The effect of these enforce-
ment Acts was to take over to the central govern-
ment all the powers of the State governments relative
to suffrage and elections.

The Ku Klux Klan tried in every possible way to
impress the President and Congress that their activi-
ties would cease when relief should come to the South,
but instead the above committee was appointed at
Washington, and General Grant approved the Ku
Klux Acts.

When the sub-committee of Congress was investi-
gating the Ku Klux Klan, Senator Pratt said to
Colonel Nicholas Davis, of Huntsville, Alabama, "I
wish to read to you the preamble of the law approved
Dec. 26, 1868, by the Alabama Hadical Legislature,
entitled 'An Act for the Suppression of Secret Or-
ganizations of men disguising themselves for the pur-
pose of committing crimes and outrages.' I wish to
read you the preamble of that law and ask you
whether the state of things contained in it was true
at the time this law was passed."

154 AUTHENTIC HISTORY

The law was read to Mr. Davis and his answer was,
"I will tell you one thing. I never paid much atten-
tion to any law enacted by any such authority as that
was."

Mr. Pratt said: "I am not asking you for your
opinion of the law, but simply of the truth or untruth
of the recitals of the Ku Klux Klan in that preamble."

Mr. Davis replied: "I believe that there was in
1868 a Ku Klux Klan in the State of Alabama and
in Madison County, but I prefer that my testimony
be restricted to things I know. I believe that now
it is more unsafe for a man to be a Ku Klux Klans-
man here than it would be in New York. I believe it
would be much safer for a man to put on a dis-
guise in the city of New York where you live, Sena-
tor Pratt."

Mr. Pratt said: "You have told us that several
times, and I do not ask to have it repeated oftener.
But I want to ask you whether you saw published
in the papers sometime in 1869 what purported to be
an order emanating from the Cyclops of that organi-
zation disbanding it."

Mr. Davis: "I did not."

Mr. Pratt: "Did you ever hear of such an order?"

Mr. Davis: "I did not."

Mr. Pratt: "Were you a constant reader of the
newspapers?"

Mr. Davis: "I can say that I am, but I never saw
such an order."

Mr. Pratt: "And you have never heard of such an
order?"

KU KLUX KLAINT, 1865-1877 155

Mr. Davis: "No, sir, not until you mentioned it
here."

Mr. Pratt: "Did you hear of such an order in
1869?"

Mr. Davis: "I never heard of it until you men-
tioned it."

Question : "Has there been any such thing as a Ku
Klux Klan in this county in the last two years?"

Answer: "There have been men who imitated the
Ku Klux Klan."

Question: "For what purpose?"

Answer: "To rob and thieve — without any politics
in it — rob and thieve."

Question: "Was the Union League a political or-
ganization?"

Answer: "Yes, and they forbade me to speak here
on this street. I am opposed to the organization of
the Republican Party in Alabama."

Another prominent Limestone County, Alabama,
man who was summoned by the minority on this sub-
committee was Captain Daniel Coleman who was at
that time solicitor of Limestone County. When asked
by the chairman of this committee to state the con-
dition in his county, he asked that the following ac-
count of a mass meeting held in Athens be inserted in
the record, to show that the people were anxious for
the restoration of order.

From the Athens (Alabama) Post:

"At a large and earnest meeting of the citizens of
Limestone County, Ala., held in the Court House
in the town of Athens on the 25th of Sept., 1871, in

156 AUTHENTIC HISTORY

pursuance to a call heretofore made, to protest
against the outrages that have been committed and
the lawlessness and crime which exist the following
proceedings were held, to wit:

"On motion of Colonel T. J. McClellan, Major
J. N. Malone, was elected chairman, and after a few
able remarks, stating the object of the meeting and
condemning lawlessness and crime, took the chair.
On motion of Captain Daniel Coleman, Charles M.
Hayes was appointed Secretary.

"On motion of Colonel L. R. Davis, the following
preamble and resolutions were introduced, and after
strong and eloquent speeches for their adoption were
made by Luke Pryor, J. W. Carter, James E. Nunn,
Captain Daniel Coleman, Judge William H. Walker,
and Colonel T. J. McClellan were adopted by a
strong hearty vote that carried conviction that the
meeting was in earnest.

"WHEREAS: Crime and ruthless violation of
law have increased to such an alarming extent in the
county; therefore we, the people of Limestone
County, have met together in solemn convention, to
devise ways and means for the suppression of law-
lessness and crime, to express our indignation of the
recent outrages in the county, and to unite our effort
for the maintenance of the supremacy of the law;
therefore,

"RESOLVED: First, that we are in favor of
'Law and Order'; and we pledge ourselves that we
will obey and encourage obedience to all laws, state
and national, to which we as citizens may be subject.

KU KLUX KLAN, 1865-1877 157

"Second: That great credit is due and we hereby
give our thanks, to the officers of the law and to the
people assisting them as 'posses' for the recent ener-
getic arresting and attempting to arrest the violators
of the law ; and we promise to sustain them in all their
efforts in the future to have the law enforced.

"Third: That we cordially endorse and approve the
action of the commissioners' court in employing addi-
tional counsel to assist the County Solicitor, Captain
Daniel Coleman, and we give them carte blanche to
do the same in the future whenever their judgment
may so dictate.

"Fourth : That we approve the recent action of the
county solicitor (Daniel Coleman) and we stand by
him, and uphold him in the discharge of his duties.

"Fifth: That we are in dead earnest and that we
mean what we say, when we declare that we intend
by every means known to the law, 'let it fall on whom
it may' to put down the lawlessness that now curses
and blights the county.

"Sixth: That to this end we will form in our respec-
tive beats, committees in law and order — a sort of
special police — whose duty it shall be to ferret out
and bring to punishment under the law all violators
of the law.

"Seventh: That we authorize and empower the
commissioners' court to use any means necessary to
put down the crime of the county and to that end to
make such appropriations as are essential to that
purpose. And it is the sense of the meeting that the
solicitor in view of the fact that he gets scarcely any-

158 AUTHENTIC HISTORY

thing, should be allowed compensation as the court
shall determine is proper.

"On motion of Captain Coleman, the Secretary was
directed to request the Limestone News, and the
Athens Post to publish the proceedings after which
the meeting adjourned 'sine die.'

"J. N. Malone, Pres.
"Chas. M. Hayes, Sec'y."

Captain Coleman emphasized in his testimony that
spurious Ku Klux Klans and other agents were dis-
turbing the peace in his county. He said that none of
the violations of law in his county were committed by
the real Ku Klux Klan. He stated that a Mr. Weir
said he had been mistreated by men in disguise, but
that it grew out of a personal difficulty he had had
with a Mr. Blair.

The Chairman said to Captain Coleman: "Have
you any reason to doubt Mr. Weir's statement that
he was mistreated?"

Answer: "He wrote the newspapers up North that
he had been killed, but I saw him after that. He
came to Limestone County to live after the War."

Question: "For what was Birdsong murdered?"

Answer: "He wasn't murdered. He killed a man
named McKee and fled. He and McKee had planned
to steal horses and mules at a certain place. The next
day the body of McKee was found, and in his saddle-
bags he had a disguise."

Question: "Did the disguise differ from the old-
fashioned Ku Klux disguise?"

KU KLUX KLAN, 1865-1877 159

Answer: "I did not see this disguise; only heard it
described. They certainly differed from the only Ku
Klux I ever saw. Their disguises were entirely
different."

Question: "When was that, Captain Coleman?"

Answer: "Let me see; the War closed in 1865. I
think it was in the fall of 1866."

Question: "You may state the circumstances."

Answer: "Well, sir, it was at a picnic — what was
called a moonlight picnic, in a beech-grove near
Pulaski."

Question: "In Tennessee?"

Answer : "Yes, sir, there was a dance. There was a
large circle of fine people gathered together, when
these persons in mysterious garb came out of the
woods and came upon the ground and danced to the
music and would talk to those who would talk with
them, disguising their voices. It seemed to be a thing
of amusement. I never heard anything in connection
with it as a political organization."

Question: "Not at that time?"

Answer: "At that time, no, sir."

By Mr. Buckley, of the Committee: "What was
their disguise?"

Answer: "Well, sir, they had very tall hats, that
seemed to be made of some stiff material, I could not
tell what it was, but it was covered with spangles,
with stars, and it was rather a pretty and showy cos-
tume. Their covering seemed to be a kind of talma
or cloak thrown over their bodies, and then a tunic
running down to their feet nearly."

160 AUTHENTIC HISTORY

Question: "Was that the first time you ever heard
oftheKuKluxKlan?"

Answer: "Probably I had heard of the Ku Klux
Klan a little before that, but that was the first time I
ever saw them."

Question: "How long subsequently did that organi-
zation exist and operate in full vigor?"

Answer: "Subsequently, I do not know. The next
time I saw them was in 1867."

Question: "Where was it you saw them in 1867?"

Answer: "I saw them in Athens."

Question: "In Limestone County?"

Answer: "In Athens."

Question: "How large a band?"

Answer: "Well, sir, one band consisted of six. The
other band of about seventy-five or one hundred."

Question: "You may describe the occasion of their
visit to Athens."

Answer: "One visit was one night as I came from
the cars. I saw them just riding through the town.
They stopped on the square and cut up a good many
gyrations, or performances. I remember one of them
took my hat off, and took it some distance. I thought
he had gotten it for good, but he brought it back
to me."

"The other visit was on the occasion of the Presi-
dential election when they came in. We had some
Federal soldiers, just to keep order; they rode up and
asked for the Mayor of the town.

"We were apprehending some disturbance at the
polls. A great many people were in the town and we

KU KLUX KLAN, 1865-1877 161

did not know but there might be some collision. One
of the men in disguise asked the Mayor (I was pre-
sent,) if he apprehended any disturbance during the
day. He said, 'No,' he thought everything would be
quiet.

"The lieutenant of the Federal guard came up and
spoke to the Ku Klux Klan and one of them turned to
the lieutenant and the Mayor and said, 'If they don't
keep good order, Lieutenant, just scratch on the
ground, and I'll be with you.' " (This was said by
Mr. W. R. (Dick) Pryor, the author has been
informed. )

Question: "This visit was when the election oc-
curred?"

Answer : "Yes, sir, that is when the large body ap-
peared."

Question : "From your first knowledge of the Order
until 1868, was two years and a half, was it not?"

Answer: "Yes, sir."

Question: "During that time did this organization
do any mischief in Limestone County?"

Answer: "No, sir, none that I heard of. I heard no
complaint made."

Question: "No outrages were perpetrated upon
persons to your knowledge or from information that
you derived from others?"

Answer: "No, sir, I do not know of any outrages
that were laid to the account of the Ku Klux Klan at
that time."

Question: "Was that society ever known by any

162 AUTHENTIC HISTORY

other name than the Ku Klux Klan in Limestone and
adjoining counties?"

Answer: "No, sir, I never heard of its being known
by any other name."

Question: "Did you ever hear of an organization
known as the 'Invisible Circle'?"

Answer: "No, sir."

Question: " 'The Knights of the White Camelia'?"

Answer: "No, sir, I never heard of them."

Question: "Or the 'White Brotherhood'?"

Answer: "No, sir."

Question: "Have you ever heard of the 'Pale
Faces'?"

Answer: "No, sir."

Question: "Have you ever known of an organiza-
tion known as the 'Constitutional Union Guards'?"

Answer: "No, sir."

Question: "You think the body of men that com-
pose the Ku Klux organization never assumed any
other name or were known by any other name than
KuKlux?"

Answer: "No, sir, they never assumed any other

name."

Question : "Are the Ku Klux Southern or Northern
men?"

Answer: "They are all Southern men."

Question: "You spoke, Mr. Coleman, of bands of
disguised men whose objects are stealing, murdering
and burning gins, etc. About how many bands have
you known?"

Answer: "The one I prosecuted a few months ago,

KU KLUX KLAN, 1865-1877 163

signed themselves to a paper they posted up 'Men of
Justice.' "

Question: "Was not the law to suppress the Ku
Klux Klan, bitterly assailed at the time of its pass-
age?"

Answer: "I did not approve it myself, for I knew
of no outrages then by the Ku Klux Klan, and the
expression generally was, it had a salutary effect on
criminals."

Question: "What do you know about disguised men
taking the negroes' guns away from them?"

Answer: "I know of no band taking the negroes'
guns, except the ones I prosecuted."

This testimony given by Captain Coleman regard-
ing these counterfeit Ku Klux Klans which were sent
from the North to create the disturbances, harass and
annoy the people into deeds of retaliation, was typical
of the conditions throughout the South ; and the sub-
committee soon found that the laws passed against the
real Ku Klux Klan were operating against the agents
of the government who had been sent for that
purpose.

Another instance of the injustice of these trials was
the case of bogus Ku Klux being prosecuted and con-
victed by Captain William Richardson, at Huntsville,
Alabama, and they were immediately discharged by
the Federal authorities, when it was learned that they
were "carpet-baggers."

This fact is stated in the testimony given by Cap-
tain Richardson before the sub-committee at Hunts-
ville, in the famous Ku Klux hearings.

164 AUTHENTIC HISTORY

Captain Daniel Coleman and his brothers, Lieu-
tenant Frank Coleman and Dr. Ruffin Coleman
vowed vengeance on General Jesse J. Phillips, United
States Army, who while plundering their home at
Athens, Alabama, demanded of their mother to give
him her false teeth because they were set on a gold
plate, and when she refused, he commanded one of
his officers to hold her head while he took them out,
and he carried them away.

General Phillips came to Athens, Alabama, in 1867
and the Ku Klux Klan "Den" of which they were
members found out their intention to challenge the
General for a duel.

The "Den" took the three Coleman men to the resi-
dence of Dr. Nicholas Davis Richardson and guarded
them for days until the General left the state, and
when they still thought they would pursue him to
avenge his insult to their mother, they were told by
the Ku Klux Klan that if they broke their paroles as
Confederate soldiers that they would expel them from
the Ku Klux Klan.

They then gave their word of honor to refrain from
this act of vengeance however justifiable it was in
the minds of the other men, for the Ku Klux Klan
had determined as far as possible to prevent their
own members from wreaking vengeance, or otherwise
making trouble.

Captain Coleman told me he was always glad that
the Ku Klux Klan prevented him from this deed as it
distressed his mother greatly when she learned how
nearly they had begun another Civil War, for she was

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highly loved and respected and not only her son but
others would have joined in the deed.

Daniel Coleman was born September 7, 1838, at
Athens, Limestone County, Alabama, and died at
Huntsville, Ala., June 29, 1906. He was the son of
Daniel and Elizabeth Lockhart (Peterson) Coleman.
He was descended from Col. Richard Cocke who came
to Virginia and was a member of the House of
Burgesses and who was offered the command of an
army by King George in the Revolutionary War
but refused and fought with the Virginians. Col.
Cocke was descended from the Coke family who
crossed the English channel with William the Con-
queror and the first one who came to England was an
officer in the Battle of Hastings. On one occasion
when this officer had lost a battle he called to the
officer on the other side and said, "Come and take my
sword, I'll never surrender." Captain Coleman's
grandfather, Daniel Coleman, was an officer in the
Revolutionary war from Maryland and his sword
which he used then was still in the possession of the
Coleman family at Athens, Ala., until it was taken
away by Federal soldiers during the Civil War. On
the Coleman line, Captain Coleman is descended from
the Key family of Maryland from which Francis
Scott Key, the author of the "Star Spangled Ban-
ner" was descended. Captain Coleman was a gallant
Confederate soldier, had several horses killed under
him during the Civil War and made many narrow
escapes from death. He was a successful business
man after the War and resided in Huntsville, Ala.,

166 AUTHENTIC HISTORY

until his death. He married Miss Claude LeVert by
whom he is survived. Captain Coleman was one of
the Assistant Judicial officers of the Invisible Empire
and was one of the founders of the Athens, Alabama,
Ku Klux Klan.

General Nathan Bedford Forrest when testifying
before the Joint Congressional Committee inquiring
into the Affairs in the Insurrectionary States at
Washington, D. C, June 27, 1871, made the follow-
ing statements when being examined by the Chair-
man, Mr. Beck: "You say that whatever organization
of the Ku Klux Klan, or anything else, took place in
the region with which you are familiar, it was gotten
up through fear of the militia, and was the result of
that state of things?"

General Forrest : "That is my understanding of it."

Question: "And for protection of themselves,
when the law was considered powerless?"

Answer: "According to my understanding, the or-
ganization was intended entirely as a protection to
the people, to enforce the laws, and protect the peo-
ple against outrages."

Question: "Without regard to whether they were
perpetrated by democrats or republicans?"

Answer: "Yes, sir, I do not think that would make
any difference."

Question: "Do you think the Ku Klux Klan was
begun in Middle Tennessee?"

Answer: "Yes, in Middle Tennessee. I have no
idea who started it."

Question: "Have you never heard?"

KU KLUX KLAN, 1865-1877 167

Answer: "It has been said I originated it, that I
started it."

Question: "Is that true?"

Answer: "No, sir, it is not."

Question: "Did not the Ku Klux Klan admit
boys?"

Answer: "I do not know, but I do not think they
admitted boys."

Question: "What is your knowledge on the sub-
ject?"

Answer: "My information was that they admitted
no man who was not a gentleman, and a man who
could be relied upon to act discreetly; not men who
were in the habit of drinking; boisterous men, or
men liable to commit error or wrong, or anything of
that sort; that is what I understood."

General Forrest stated before this committee "that
in the event of a war between the races in the South
that the white people of the North would come to
the assistance of the white people of the South if they
have the same feelings toward their own race that
the Southern people have, and I have no reason to
believe that they have not."

He was asked the question by the committee :

"Do you call everybody who was in the rebel army
and afterwards joined the republicans — do you call
them scalawags?"

Answer: "Yes, generally."

Question: "Do you call all the people who go down
there from the North, carpet-baggers?"

Answer: "They are not all called carpet-baggers.

168 AUTHENTIC HISTORY

There is a difference, they are a different class of
people. They behave themselves, and do not mix
with the negroes, and do not have anything to do
with politics."

Question: "What do you think is the effect of the
amnesty granted to your people?"

Answer: "I believe the amnesty restored all the
rights to the people full and complete. I do not
think the Federal Government has any right to dis-
franchise any man, but the legislatures of the states
have. There is a limit beyond which men cannot
be driven, and I am ready to die sooner than sacrifice
my honor. This thing must have an end, and it is
now about time for that end to come."

Question: "Then I suppose that there can be no
doubt of a conflict if the militia interferes with the
people; is that your view?"

Answer: "Yes, sir, if they attempt to carry out
Governor Brownlow's Proclamation by shooting
down Ku Klux — for he calls all Southern men Ku
Klux — if they go to hunting down and shooting these
men, there will be war, and a bloodier one than we
have ever witnessed. I have told these radicals here
what they might expect in such an event.

"I have no powder to burn killing negroes. I in-
tend to kill the radicals. I have told them this and
more. There is not a radical leader in this town, but
is a marked man; and if trouble should break out,
not one of them would be left alive.

"I have told them that they were trying to create a
disturbance and then slip out and leave the conse-

KU KLUX KLAN, 1865-1877 169

quences to fall upon the negro ; but they can't do it.
Their houses are picketed, and when the fight comes
not one of them would ever get out of this town alive.

"We don't intend they shall ever get out of the
country. But I want it distinctly understood that I
am opposed to any war, and will only fight in self-
defense.

"If the militia should attack us, we will resist to
the last ; and if necessary, I think I could raise 40,000
men in five days ready for the field."

Question: "Do you think, General, that the Ku
Klux Klan has been of any benefit to the State?"

Answer: "No doubt of it."

Question: "What do you think of negro suffrage?"

Answer: "I am opposed to it under any and all cir-
cumstances, and in our convention urged our party
not to commit themselves at all upon the subject,
and here I want you to understand distinctly I am
not an enemy to the negro."

Question: "You say that whatever organization of
the Ku Klux Klan, or anything else, took place in the
region of country with which you are familiar, it was
gotten up through fear of depredations by the militia,
and was the result of that state of things?"

Answer: "That is my understanding of it."

Question: "And for the protection of themselves
where the law was considered powerless?"

Answer: "According to my understanding, the or-
ganization was intended entirely as a protection to
the people, to enforce the laws, and protect the peo-
ple against outrages."

170 AUTHENTIC HISTORY

Question: "Without any regard to whether they
were perpetrated by democrats or republicans?"

Answer: "Yes, sir, I do not think that would make
any difference; that is, that is my impression, while
I do not know that is so — that was the general under-
standing in the community."

When Mr. Beck referred to an interview given to
a reporter of the Cineiimati Commercial and pub-
lished in that paper in Sept. 1, 1868, and General
Forrest's correction by letter of these statements and
published in this paper in Sept. 3, 1867, General
Forrest said he had been grossly misrepresented by
this reporter, when he published that he had said there
were 550,000 Ku Klux in the South. He said he
objected to this, as he had only said "it was reported,
and I believe the report that there are 40,000 Ku
Klux in Tennessee, and I believe the organization
stronger in other states."

IX.
THE UNION LEAGUE OF AMERICA.

The Union League of America was organized in
Ohio in 1862, when the Confederate States Army
had been victorious on many battle-fields.

Many northern people were banding together to
resist the war when their sense of truth and justice
had been shocked by the Emancipation Proclama-
tion. Interest in the war had waned all over the
North, for the best element there knew that President
Lincoln in his inaugural speech March 4, 1861 had
said:

"I have no purpose directly or indirectly to inter-
fere with the institution of slavery in the States where
it exists; I believe I have no lawful right to do so
and I have no inclination to do so."

When General John C. Fremont issued a procla-
mation emancipating the slaves of certain persons,
President Lincoln countermanded it, and thus led
the people North and South to believe he intended
to keep his word of non-interference with slavery as
made in his inaugural address.

But on Jan. 1, 1863, Mr. Lincoln issued a "Proc-
lamation of Emancipation" declaring all slaves in
the seceding States to be free. "There is certainly
no authority conferred upon a President by the Con-

171

172 AUTHENTIC HISTORY

stitution of the United States to take such a step
under any circumstances."

The Union League was organized in New York in
January 1863 immediately after the Emancipation
Proclamation, to combat the effect of it as it had
greatly depressed the enthusiasm for the war and
Mr. Lincoln ; this branch of the League was especially
pledged to fight in behalf of the people of the North,
in States rights.

The Union League which had been founded by a
few men in Ohio (Cleveland) in 1862, organized
branches in many large cities of the North to keep
up the morale of the Union Army, as it was greatly
demoralized at that time, and their ardour was cooled
by Lincoln's failure to keep his word in regard to
slavery.

The Union League sent their agents to the South
and distributed leaflets to the negroes, instructing
them to outrage the women and children, to force
the Confederate soldiers to come home for their
protection.

My mother said one of our slaves, Alex, brought
this vile paper to her, and as he could not read she
read it to him — and he said, "I would die before I
would harm you or the children, or allow any other
man, white or black, to hurt you."

He asked for my father's shot gun, and bringing
an axe sat down on the steps, and guarded the house
day and night until my father returned home, as he
was at that time absent.

There was not an instance during slavery or dur-

KU KLUX KLAN, 1865-1877 173

ing the Civil War, when a negro man assaulted a
white woman, and all over the South they protected
the homes and children — this fact was the funda-
mental reason that led the men of the South to be as
patient as they were with the negroes when many of
them made drunk by mean white men during the
period of Reconstruction would do wrong; but they
were the younger negroes and the free negroes from
the North, who, after being freed, as in Rhode
Island, had been exiled and were wanderers, were
brought South by the Union League to do the crimes
that the former faithful slaves would not do.

The Southern women appreciate this protection
given us by these negro men, and too little has been
known of it in the North.

The Union League continued its vicious work dur-
ing the reconstruction period, both North and South,
and is responsbile more than any other agency for
the bitterness engendered between these sections.

This League was the first to suggest negro suf-
frage — and after the war the League increased enor-
mously, and in most cases, with the lowest order of
men on earth, who would send reports to the North
of conditions which did not exist in the South.

The members of this League were the men who
were the spurious imitators of the uniforms and re-
galia of the Ku Klux Klan, who would kill, whip and
otherwise punish negroes who refused to do their vile
bidding, and report them as outrages done by the real
Ku Klux Klan.

174 AUTHENTIC HISTORY

In the border States, especially Kentucky, this
League perpetrated many outrages in 1870, which
caused the real Ku Klux Klan to become more active
there. One of the most notoriously dishonest, un-
truthful of the Freedman's Bureau Agents, and tool
of the Union League was J. W. Alvord, General
Superintendent of Education of the Freedmen's
Bureau, and whose experience with the real Ku Klux
Klan is given in his own words in a letter from him
to Gen. O. O. Howard:

Berea, Kentucky, Jan. 29, 1870.
Dear General:

I regret to report threats and a species of guerilla
warfare still existing. At ten o'clock last night we
were startled amid the darkness with the loud cry
ringing through the forest, "Hurrah for Jeff Davis.
Jeff Davis is a white man/' But the Ku Klux Klan
knew that eveiy student (male, negro) here carried
a revolver, in line on the first alarm, and they did not
leave the beaten path. The past twenty-four hours
have been in the midst of the Ku Klux Klan. At this
moment a fierce yell directly in my ear, wheeled me
half way around with its stunning force. I had heard
the same (multitudinous) on rebel battle-fields. I
still hear of the Ku Klux outrages. We still are
obliged to hold them in mystery as to our mission.
We intimated that the General Government would
be obliged to suppress these atrocities.

Yours very respectfully,

J. W. Alvord,
Gen. Supt. of Education.

KU KLUX KLAN, 1865-1877 175

Richmond, Ky., Jan. 29, 1870.
Dear General:

I wrote on leaving Louisville ; then on a fast train,
soon found myself in what is called the "Blue Grass
Region of Kentucky," no part of the country — per-
haps of the world, — excels in fertility this remarkable
belt. Herds of cattle and horses, even at this cold
season are grazing the meadows and rich pasture
slopes — but in general there is to a Northern eye, an
air of unthrift and discomfort, a painful discrepancy
between means and ends, as though some strange
blight had passed over the land and the people, leav-
ing everywhere its poison.

Stopping for the night in this county seat (Madi-
son Co.) we are at a diminutive hotel, not temper-
ance, kept by an ex-Rebel, Headquarters of the Ku
Klux or "marauders" are not far from here — no one
is supposed to know where (I heard that some ne-
groes were killed near here).

Very respectfully yours,

J. W. Alvord,
General O. O. Howard. Gen. Supt. of Ed. F. B.

Nashville, Tenn.,
Jan. 26, 1870.
Dear General:

This city is the center of culture and political influ-
ence in Tennessee, and is now quite astir with the
State Convention and the Legislature. Both bodies
indicate within the last few days some advance in the
right direction, as seen in the discussion of further
educational provisions, and enactment against that

176 AUTHENTIC HISTORY

nuisance, now beginning to be universally felt, the
Ku Klux, or as they are here called "masked ma-
rauders" —

Even in the schools of the charitable societies it is
the custom to have the pupils pay fifty cents per
month. There is no complaint of this, such is the
unabated desire for learning.

Yours very respectfully,

J. W. Alvord,
General O. O. Howard. Gen. Supt. of Ed. F. B.

"Lo! the poor nigger!" Believing that he was
being provided schools by Northern charity, was com-
pelled to slave and pay money to those thieving
agents, while the Bureau creating these schools was
supported by the Government.

Condition of the white children of the South in
regard to schools is shown by the following letter
from J. W. Alvord to Gen. O. O. Howard.

Columbia, S. C,
Jan. 7, 1870.
Dear General:

I have been much interested in witnessing the so-
cial elevation of the Freedmen at this place. The
Governor, R. K. Scott, in his receptions, makes no
distinctions among the members of the legislature
(125 of whom are colored), all are taken equally by
the hand with the graceful urbanity for which his
honor is distinguished. All alike, on such occasions

KU KLUX KLAN, 1865-1877 177

crowd around his luxurious refreshment tables, where
as his accomplished lady told me there were no in-
vidious distinctions made.

You will remember at the dinner given on your ac-
count, and at which I had the honor of being a guest,
his Secretary of State, Hon. F. L. Cardoza and
his lady (both colored) received equal attention with
other officials and ladies and gentlemen of the high-
est standing. I could but feel as I looked on that
agreeable circle that equality of character and cul-
ture were the conditions of equality in social life.
The Governor has followed the same rule on other
occasions, and in conversation with me said he could
allow himself to adopt none other. His opinion is
that in our higher institutions of learning, cultured
youth of both colors will come, at length, to associate
on equal terms, and that scholarship and general re-
finement, on each side will gradually settle the ques-
tion of mixed schools.

At Orangeburg I found the Claflin University in
the large and beautiful building (late the Orange-
burg Female Academy) which was repaired by
Mr. Deane of the Bureau at an expense of $2,500
with about one hundred students under the efficient

care of Dr. Webster It will probably ask for

further assistance from the Bureau.

I have the honor to be yours, etc.,

Respectfully, J. W. Alvord,
Supt. of Ed. R. F. and A. L.
Gen. O. O. Howard.

178 AUTHENTIC HISTORY

This was just one instance of thousands where the
school property was stolen by the Freedman's Bu-
reau, and negroes put in them, thereby robbing the
Southern white children of their educational rights.

Mr. Alvord reckoned without his host in thinking
that there ever would be mixed schools (negroes and
whites) in the South — and the white children do all
honor to the Ku Klux Klan for preventing even at
the point of bayonets such a condition for them.

These negro schools were taught by Northern white
teachers.

For the white children there were no schools. The
University of Alabama made an effort to open in
1865, but only one student appeared, as a carpet-
bagger named Lakin had taken it — the worst type
of man, and the one who was abused by Colonel Nich-
olas Davis, who for which was falsely called in Con-
gressional hearings a "scalawag." He was a finished
scholar, yet this report of the committee is made in the
most incorrect language, bearing falsehood on the
face of it.

During reconstruction, many school buildings were
ordered burned by the Union League, because the
white children did not go to them with the negroes.
A notable instance occurred in Tuscumbia, Alabama,
near Muscle Shoals, when the negroes were told by
these League agents to burn the town. They refused
to do so, saying there were good people there, and
then the agent set fire to the Tuscumbia school for
Girls.

The white children were taught at home by their

KU KLUX KLAN, 1865-1877 179

parents, and a few private schools opened in the
homes of Southern women. I attended my first
school in the home of Miss Sally Malone, at Athens,
Alabama, and my father, with the other fathers,
always went with us to protect the lady as far as
possible, as there were threats that negroes would be
sent there by the Federal soldiers.

At this time, from 1870 to 1877, the Ku Klux Klan,
either in their regalia or without it, were ever near
the women and children protecting them, while work-
ing at anything they could do to provide for them.

Major Robert Donnell was our neighbor, and
when my father was away from home, he would take
my sisters and me to school. He told me years
afterwards that he was one of the children's Ku Klux
guards, and the following is a sketch of his war
record. Private Company E, 50th Alabama Regi-
ment. Major 22nd Alabama Infantry, and was
Adjutant, in General D. H. Hill's Division. Pa-
roled May 1865. He was a cultured gentleman of
the old school of Southern chivalry. He was one of
the founders of the Athens, Alabama, Ku Klux Klan
and was the Grand Scribe of the "Invisible Empire,"

CONDITIONS FROM 1870-1877.

General Nathan B. Forrest was on his plantation
near Memphis, Tennessee, but at all times he was
available to the Ku Klux Klan for his advice and
guidance. When the newspaper reports of the crimes
committed by the Clark band of Tories reached him,
and the Northern press attributed it to the Ku Klux
Klan, he immediately went to Florence, having noti-
fied the leaders to meet him there to consider what
steps should be taken to apprehend and punish des-
peradoes and wipe out the odium which had been at-
tributed to the Ku Klux Klan by the Northern
public.

General John B. Gordon of Georgia was visiting
his brother, Major E. C. Gordon, of Athens, Ala-
bama, at this time and represented the Georgia Ku
Klux Klan at this meeting, which was presided over
by General Nathan B. Forrest and from which great
results were anticipated.

This meeting was held on the plantation of Gen-
eral George S. Houston, which is located at Muscle
Shoals on the Tennessee River.

(A description of this meeting was given me by
Major James R. Crowe and Captain John C. Lester,
who represented the Pulaski Klan, and by Colonel

180

KU KLUX KLAN, 1865-1877 181

Lawrence Ripley Davis, Captain William Richard-
son, Captain John M. Townsend, Colonel T. J. Cox,
Mr. R. B. Mason, and Major Robert Donnell.)

During this meeting General George S. Houston
said that Alabama must be rescued from radical rule,
and his life-time friend, Colonel Lawrence Ripley
Davis, replied to him, that he was the only man in
Alabama who could defeat any Radical candidate,
and that if he would consent to be a candidate, he
would "stump the state" in his behalf.

In 1874, when General Houston made the race
for governor against David P. Lewis, a Radical, he
held Mr. Davis to his promise, and they canvassed
every county in the State together. Economy was
a leading trait of General George S. Houston, both
with his private funds and public trusts; so he had a
wagon made of hickory wood, with spring seats and
had the wheels built very high so he could ford the
streams. He employed a young man, Mr. Maclin
Hill, to drive for him, on this immortal canvass, which
won for him the election of governor in 1874 and his
re-election in 1876, thus wresting the State from the
rule of the Radicals and negroes.

By his wise business policy, Alabama was enabled
to pay her honorable debts, though at the time of
his election the State had neither funds nor credit,
even to hold the Constitutional Convention in 1875.
Governor Houston pledged his private purse that
the same would be paid if the people could not raise
the money. He was never called upon to do this,

182 AUTHENTIC HISTORY

as, by some miracle, they managed to raise the nec-
essary funds.

Governor George S. Houston served in the United
States Congress from 1841 to January 1861. When
secession seemed almost a certainty, he became a
member of the famous Committee of Thirty-three
to devise means to save the Union, but when Alabama
seceded he wrote and presented to the Speaker the
formal withdrawal of the Alabama delegation from
the Federal Congress.

He was earnestly opposed to secession as was Col-
onel Lawrence Ripley Davis, who was a member of
the Alabama Legislature when Alabama seceded.
Both of them, while they were bitterly opposed to
secession gracefully yielded to the will of the ma-
jority, and Colonel Lawrence Ripley Davis, at the
request of the governor of Alabama, made speeches
throughout the Tennessee valley, persuading the
people of North Alabama to acquiesce in the result of
the secession convention, and did great work in over-
coming the bitter opposition to secession in that sec-
tion of the State.

General George S. Houston did all in his power to
aid the Confederacy. Two of his sons were in the
Confederate Army. He would not take the oath of
allegiance to the Federal Government after the War.

Colonel Lawrence Ripley Davis was secretary to
George S. Houston during his four years as governor,
and together they formulated many of the wise
measures which enabled Alabama to recover from
Reconstruction.

KU KLUX KLAN, 1865-1877 183

Governor Houston was elected to the United
States Senate, but served only a short time when he
died in Athens, Dec. 31, 1879, honored and beloved
by all Alabamians.

The Ku Klux Klan, who were directly responsible
for the redemption of Alabama from misrule, re-
joiced in the re-election of Governor Houston in 1876,
and many thousands of them paraded in Athens,
Alabama, Governor Houston's home, to pay him
tribute. This was the last parade of the Ku Klux
Klan at that place.

The torchlights in this parade were decorated with
banners on which pictures of men who had believed
in negro rule were painted, half black and half white.
This unique idea was conceived and the pictures
painted by a young boy, Arthur Pepin, who was
greatly applauded by the older men, for the pictures
were so life-like the faces could be recognized by the
immense number of people in the parade. The men
thus caricatured by the boy (who was true blue) were
so frightened that they left the town.

About sixty worthy negro men, who had been
faithful to the white people during the war and this
dreadful time of reconstruction, and who voted for
Governor Houston, were in this parade, having been
provided with horses by the Ku Klux Klan.

Otho Fraser, a negro man who is still living at
Athens, Alabama, at the age of 96, described this
parade to me in detail, and is proud to have been
numbered among the negroes who were shown by this
act that the white people appreciated their fidelity;

184 AUTHENTIC HISTORY

he has always been a credit to his race, and said to
me that "If all the people in the world were at work
each day, making shoes, as I do — or something else —
there would be no problems to settle for white or
black."

He is shown great respect by the white people of
Athens, and he has reared a family of efficient men
and women. At his advanced age he is physically
and mentally very alert and he says he knows many
of the Ku Klux Klan secrets which he will never
divulge.

The government at Washington, realizing that the
Democratic party was gaining in strength in the
South, began to use every means in their power to
elect Republicans, and to further incense the South
ern people.

In South Carolina, among the first acts of Gov-
ernor Scott's radical administration, was the organ-
ization of 8,000 negro militia, and he went in person
to General Grant, and induced him, without any
authority of law to issue arms under the Congres-
sional appropriation for twenty years in advance.

These arms were the newly perfected Springfield
rifles, and this negro militia was furnished with
United States Army uniforms and equipment. On
the 4th of July, 1876, these companies were drilling
under a negro named Doc. Adams.

Meeting a party of young white men on the high-
way he gave the order to charge bayonets to compel
the advancing men to flee. But they were not of
that kind.

KU KLUX KLAN, 1865-1877 185

They reached for their pistols and shouted: "We
will shoot the first man who sticks a bayonet in a
horse!" The negroes could have butchered the white
men with great ease, but the Captain shouted "Halt"
to his men, and opened his ranks so that the white
men could pass.

After this it was the settled purpose of the leading
white men in South Carolina to seize the first oppor-
tunity to teach the negroes a lesson.

It was believed by these men now, that all other
efforts having failed at Washington, by the appeals
of the leaders of the South, "that nothing but blood-
shed, and a great deal of it," could answer the
purpose of relieving that State from negro and
carpet-bag rule.

Quickly followed the riots known as the "Ned
Tennant Riot" and the "Hamburgh Riot," and other
clashes between the negroes and white men.

The "Hamburgh Riot" caused such a furore
throughout the North, and the Republican press was
waving the "bloody shirt" with such frantic energy,
that the South Carolina men decided that they would
wave the bloody shirt in reality, in defiance.

So a parade was arranged, and shirts, stained with
red were made by the women. This parade was
known as the "Red Shirt Parade."

Many men who participated in it were Ku Klux
Klansmen who felt that they could co-operate with
them for they knew full well the powers of an odd and
spectacular uniform in putting fear into the hearts of

186 AUTHENTIC HISTORY

the rebellious and fractious negroes who were author-
ized by the government to maintain military authority.

The "Red Shirt Organization" served to draw the
bond of race closer together, and to emphasize the
one thought "white supremacy," which pulsated in
every white bosom. It was "all for one and one for
all."

Their activities were coincident with those of the
Ku Klux Klan until South Carolina was redeemed in
1877, and for many years the "Red Shirts" held
their annual reunion, and I quote this from a speech
made by Senator Benjamin R. Tillman at the
"Red Shirt Reunion at Anderson, S. C, Aug. 25,
1909."

After appearing before the Congressional sub-
committee at Huntsville as a witness, General For-
rest called the Ku Klux Klan together there and
stated to them that he had been convinced that some-
thing must be done, and at once, to establish home
rule in the South, and to go to the rescue of South
Carolina. He directed the Ku Klux Klans to meet
him at "Capshaw's Mountain," Madison County,
Alabama. At this meeting were many of the leading
Confederate Generals, among them General John B.
Gordon.

General Forrest instructed the Ku Klux Klan to
make a regalia suitable for military purposes, of white
cloth, bordered with red. I have a clear recollection
of the women of the neighborhood meeting at my
mother's home and making many of these garments,

KU KLUX KLA2J, 1865-1877 187

and I learned to sew, while assisting them to stitch on
red bias folds.

It was at this time that I received my impression
of General Forrest. He came from this meeting on
Capshaw's Mountain to be the guest of my parents,
Colonel and Mrs. Lawrence Ripley Davis, at "Wood-
lawn," Madison County, Alabama.

This visit was indelibly impressed on my mind by
the fact that my mother made a special effort in those
hard times to prepare a typical Southern dinner
for the distinguished guest. I remember that all
the neighbors, far and near, brought from their
pantries all the delicacies which at that time her home
was deprived of; for General Forrest was the hero
of all hearts throughout that section, as he had saved
it on several occasions during the Civil War.

The picture that he made on my childish mind was
that he towered in height and soldierly bearing above
other tall men present, as his form was reflected in
mirrors above the mantle, standing with his back to
the firelight which flickered brightly against crimson
carpets and curtains. That so great a man as General
Forrest should, as he did, play a game of chess with
me on the floor, with the red and white chess men,
used then, is indeed an incident to be remembered
with pride.

During this evening one of the chief topics was the
cotton tax that had been illegally imposed after the
war, and the devising of some means for General
Gordon to present the subject at Washington for
the return of the millions of dollars collected by the

188 AUTHENTIC HISTORY

government. This tax was the means of ruining
many of the Southern planters and it was at this
time that I heard my father say to General Forrest
that on account of this tax, he would be compelled to
at last give up his beautiful home and go to Athens
to try and make a livelihood for his family.

General Forrest seemed much concerned and urged
General Gordon to hurry to Washington on the mis-
sion about the cotton, but nothing was ever accom-
plished.

Soon after this, my father had to move to Athens,
and I had to bid farewell to this home that I loved and
to the magnificent forest oaks, wide-spreading chest-
nut trees, and tall aspens whose rustling leaves had
seemed to me to be the whisperings of angels. This
was my first great grief, when I told my trees good-
bye, and played for the last time on the mossy carpet
beneath them, I left them with a promise to return
when the cotton tax was paid. (It has been fifty
years, and the government has never settled the cot-
ton claims.)

My father was only one instance of many planters
who remained on their lands in order to give work
to their former slaves who had been faithful and
were still willing to work. This illegal tax on the
cotton made it impossible for the white men to get
a financial footing to enable them to remain on their
plantations; and so the better class of negroes were
set adrift without any assistance or means of support.

Some of them however, were able by their industry

Chaplain Confederate States Army; Poet Laureate of the
South; Grand Chaplain of the "Invisible Empire," Ku Klux Klan.

"He soothed the suffering soul of the stricken South by writing

'The Conquered Banner' a few days after General Robert E. Lee
surrendered the Confederate States Army."

(Contibuted by Dr. and Mrs. Arthur Pepin,
Washington, D. C. )

GENERAL ROBERT E. LEE

Confederate States Army
Incarnated Spirit of the Ku Klux Klan and the "Invisible Empire'

(First time this photograph has been published,
by courtesy of L. C. Handy, Washington, D. C.)

KU KLUX KLAN, 1865-1877 189

to buy little homes and pay for them as the years
went by. I even know of instances where, through
their being able to earn wages they would take it to
their former owners, telling them to use some of it
to keep them from starving, and in after years, when
the white people had recovered, they took great pleas-
ure in showing their appreciation in every way, for
their faithfulness.

After General Forrest held the Ku Klux Klan
meeting on Capshaw's Mountain he returned to his
plantation near Memphis and soon afterwards, Gen-
eral Wade Hampton of South Carolina went to his
Yazoo Delta Plantation to make an effort to rehabili-
tate it. At this time he called on General Forrest and
while they were discussing the unbearable conditions
in South Carolina, General Forrest said to him that
it was his duty to return to South Carolina and make
the race for Governor; and if elected he would see
that he was seated, if it took the efforts of the Ku
Klux Klan.

The Nashville convention decided to extend the
Ku Klux Klan to the District of Columbia and to the
seceded states. This constituted the INVISIBLE
EMPIRE over which General Forrest, the Grand
Wizard, had complete control; and he commanded
from the headquarters of the original Ku Klux Klan
at Pulaski, Tenn., which place remained the seat of
authority until the close of the Ku Klux Klan's ex-
istence in 1877. From there he sent klansmen to
each state, with appointments as Grand Dragons of

190 AUTHENTIC HISTORY

the Realms of these states and the District of Co-
lumbia, who were to report to him the progress of
the order and to appoint all other officers created
at the convention.

The expansion of the Ku Klux Klan was so rapid
and created so much comment throughout the country
as to necessitate many meetings at the headquarters
with Forrest and the Grand Dragons of the Realms.

The object of these meetings was to devise means
to hold the order itself in check, and also to find ways
of detecting and apprehending the men sent South
by the spurious Ku Klux Klan, for the purpose of
fomenting ill will between the negroes and white
people of the South.

It was proven at all times that the crimes com-
mitted were instigated by the spurious Ku Klux Klan
sent there by the politicians at Washington to assist
the carpet-baggers and the Military authorities who
were in control of the South at this time in making
it appear that the people of the South were still
disloyal.

Many instances occurred where these impostors
were arrested and tried, but would be set free by the
authorities who were in league with the spurious
Ku Klux Klan.

The Washington Post of August 13, 1905, states
that when Brownlow was endeavoring to crush out
the Ku Klux Klan in Tennessee, one of his detectives
gained admission to the order. His purposes became
known and the Nashville Den which he had joined

KU KLUX KLAN, 1865-1877 191

under false pretenses put him in a barrel and rolled
it into the Cumberland river and he was drowned.
The States of the South given here are examples of
all reconstruction — in the other States of the "In-
visible Empire."

THE INVISIBLE EMPIRE.

RECONSTRUCTION IN THE DISTRICT
OF COLUMBIA.

To cover the history of reconstruction in the
seceded states would require many volumes. I will
only include the salient points for the District of
Columbia and the states comprising the Confederate
States of America which later became the "Invisible
Empire."

The contest for negro suffrage for the District of
Columbia was being waged in 1866 before the people
of the North and their Congress, as the Southern
states were denied representation in Congress at
that time.

The negro race had been the only one in the world's
history to hold an entire continent against the inva-
sion of civilization and to maintain barbarism for
centuries. The Moors and Egyptians had tried to
conquer Africa from the North. The Asiatics had
tried to enter it from the East, and other European
Nations had assailed it with their power but had
failed to penetrate the "dark continent."

This was the fierce battle the negroes had fought
in Africa to keep out civilization, but were finally
captured and sold into slavery into this country*

192

KU KLUX KLAN, 1865-1877 193

They then began to be developed and converted to
civilization and Christianity.

In the Northern part of the United States the
climate was so severe, coming as they did from tropi-
cal regions, their labor was not very profitable, the
winters being so long and cold and they suffered
intensely with the cold and many of them died and
their children were becoming less enabled to stand
the severe climate.

In the southern part of the United States the cli-
mate agreed with the negroes, and cotton raising and
other outdoor work was better suited to his capacity
than the work in the North where he was expected to
do skilled labor for which his mind had not become
fitted. Finding the ownership of them unprofitable,
the northern people sold their slaves to the slave own-
ers of the southern states.

Previous to the Civil War a free state for liberated
slaves had been founded by philanthropists in
Liberia, and many negroes who had been given their
freedom by their masters, both north and south, had
been taken there, but it proved a failure. Hayti and
San Domingo Black Republics were colossal failures.

With these warnings before Congress the idea of
universal suffrage for negroes was decided on and a
bill for "the extension of suffrage to the colored race
in the District of Columbia, both as a right and an
example" was before the Senate. It was understood
that the southern states which had seceded in 1861
were to be treated the same as the District of
Columbia.

194 AUTHENTIC HISTORY

The only question raised in the debates on this bill
was whether the votes should be confined to the
negroes who could read and write, and Mr. Charles
Sumner said in regard to this measure: "Now to my
mind nothing is clearer than the absolute necessity
of suffrage for all colored persons in the disorganized
States.

"It will not be enough if you give it to those who
read and write. You will not in this way acquire
the voting force which you need there for the pro-
tection of the Unionists, whether white or black.
You will not secure the new allies who are essential to
the national cause" The bill granting suffrage to
the colored race in the District of Columbia was
passed on January 7, 1867, and President Johnson
returned it making objections, saying: "this is not
the place for such an experiment. "

Senator John Sherman said, when the veto of the
President was being debated: "The President says
this is not the place for this experiment. I say it is
the place of all others because if the negroes abuse
the political power we give them we can withdraw
the privilege at any moment."

The Constitution of the United States gives Con-
gress complete control of the District of Columbia.
When another law, passed while Grant was Presi-
dent, gave the District of Columbia the right to elect
its own Legislature and Governor, then the negroes
showed their want of capacity as a "right and an
example" for the sun of "pitiless publicity" shone
on the Capital, and the whole country realized that

KU KLUX KLAN, 1865-1877 195

they did not know how to use their vote, and so many-
abuses of the power of negro suffrage were apparent
that this power was withdrawn in 1874 after only
a few years of "experiment"; and in so doing de-
prived the white men of the District of Columbia of
the franchise which they had long held, but which has
not been restored to them after a half century.

The law giving the negroes the vote was not so
easily withdrawn in the Southern states, and the evils
attendant upon it there cannot be described, but some
of them are set forth as extenuating circumstances
which justify the existence of the Ku Klux Klan in
the South from 1865 to 1877. One of the most un-
constitutional acts of the United States Government
during the Civil War was closing Trinity Episcopal
Church in Washington City, because the rector
prayed for the Confederate States of America.

Congress had no right under the Constitution of
the United States to interfere with suffrage in the
states and the Ku Klux Klan determined to convince
them of their error at Washington.

A spurious Ku Klux Klan was organized in the
District of Columbia in 1866 and its operations and
purposes were to discredit the Ku Klux Klan of the
South, but their schemes were checkmated by the real
Ku Klux Klan.

The authentic Ku Klux Klan had a strong Realm
in the District of Columbia, whose duty it was to
follow the movements of these impostors who were
planning through such men as Thaddeus Stevens and

196

AUTHENTIC HISTORY

Benjamin Butler and other radicals to subjugate the
Southern states and make of them a "black republic."
The Ku Klux Klan of the Realm of the District
of Columbia was alternately commanded by Capt.
John C. Lester, Major James R. Crowe, and Capt.
John B. Kennedy of the original Ku Klux Klan of
Pulaski, Tennessee, and Colonel Sumner A. Cunning-
ham, Grand Monk of the "Invisible Empire," whose
duty it was with their aid to do secret service. Col-
onel Cunningham gave me this fact for this history.

GENERAL ALBERT PIKE

Confederate States Army

Chief Justice of the "Invisible Empire" (Ku Klux Klan)

Father of Scottish Rite Masonry

(Reproduction of oil painting presented by-
Mr. Yvon Pike, Leesburg, Va., son of
General Pike, for this History.)

XII.
VIRGINIA.

Virginia suffered more than any state during the
Civil War because she fed both armies while on her
soil. It was the chief battle ground of the conflict
and the capital of the Confederate States of America
being at Richmond made it necessary to keep so
many of the Confederate soldiers within her borders
for her support which alone would have taxed her
resources without the plundering of her state by the
Federal army.

From 1861 to 1865 the Government of Virginia
at Richmond and the Confederate Government re-
ceived the most loyal support of all of her citizens
and when it became plain that the Southern Confed-
eracy was a "Lost Cause" the state government
would have adopted a liberal policy at Washington
and her people being united could have led by re-
storing Virginia to her place in the Union.

But she was not to be so fortunate for President
Lincoln changed his policy towards this state when
he revoked his order for the meeting of the General
Assembly and she then suffered more by the recon-
struction which followed this act than any other
State for her domain was rent asunder and she lost
one-third of her territory as the State of West Vir-

197

198 AUTHENTIC HISTORY

ginia was made from it. There were three govern-
ments in Virginia; Richmond, Wheeling and
Alexandria.

Congress admitted West Virginia with 48 coun-
ties and a subsequent act granted the annexation of
two others. The extent of the spoliation of Virginia,
which was contemplated by the Wheeling Govern-
ment in West Virginia while still claiming to repre-
sent the Old Commonwealth was that fifty coun-
ties were actually transferred and appropriated by
West Virginia, but the Wheeling Legislature passed
"An act providing for taking the sense of the voters
of Accomack and Northampton whether or not they
will be annexed to Maryland," and another act giv-
ing consent to the admission of certain counties into
the new state of West Virginia on certain conditions.

There had been a convention at Wheeling in June,
1861, and Francis H. Pierpoint had been elected
"Governor of Virginia." Although the entire ter-
ritory represented in and supporting him had become
another state and elected another governor, yet
he posed as the governor of all Virginia not trans-
ferred to West Virginia.

The Bill for the admission of West Virginia
passed the Senate of the United States in July, 1862,
but there being some delay in the House of Repre-
sentatives the Wheeling Legislature, still as the
Legislature of Virginia, not only memorialized the
House to pass the bill dismembering the Common-
wealth and alienating part of her territory, but also
requested the resignation of Hon. John S. Carlisle

KU KLUX KLAN, 1865-1877 199

who as Senator from Virginia had resisted the dis-
memberment of his native state.

On the 31st of December, 1862, the President
signed a bill previously passed by both Houses that
at the expiration of 60 days West Virginia would be
one of the sovereign and co-equal states of the Union,
and on the 20th of June, 1863, the day her state-
hood and position in the Union became complete the
government of West Virginia was formally
inaugurated.

"One of the most remarkable features of this
story is the complacency with which conventions, leg-
islatures and governors, purporting to represent the
Commonwealth of Virginia proposed and consented to
repeated partitions and transfers of her territory —
one sovereignty acting for every party and interest
concerned in the transaction — in turn promoter of the
scheme, donor of the territory and recipient of the

same."

In December, 1865, the duly elected representa-
tives of Virginia appeared in the Capitol at Wash-
ington and deposited their credentials with the
Clerk. They took their seats upon the floor but upon
the call of the House the Clerk had not entered the
name of a single representative of a Southern state
upon the rolls, and the hopes that Lincoln had raised
in the hearts of the people of Virginia were suddenly
dashed.

There was no time for defense. The outrage was
consummated as soon as suggested, and upon what
ground can it be defended? "Would the representa-

200 AUTHENTIC HISTORY

tives from the Southern States have been barred out
of Congress in 1865 if either with or without negro
suffrage these states had been so organized as to give
fair assurance of substantial republican majorities?"

There was no resistance in Virginia at the time to
national authority; no excitement, no disorder, no
insecurity of life or property which justified the sup-
pression of the fresh life of the state and the new
hopes of her people. This ejection of the representa-
tive from Virginia without assigning any reason or
being given a chance to be heard did more to en-
gender in Virginia a resentment against the general
government than all of the military operations on her
soil during the war.

The people felt that they had made every conces-
sion and conciliation consistent with their honesty
when they sustained the Pierpoint government thus
adding to it the seal of popular favor which it lacked.

They felt that the government of the state organ-
ized under it ought to stand in an exceptionally
strong position with the government of the United
States as having furnished not only the first rallying
point for Union sentiment in the South, but the first
model for the readmissoin of all the southern states,
and they felt this treatment to be a violation of good
faith, not only of logical and legal consistency but
of good faith itself.

This situation occurring as it did almost coincident
with the founding of the Ku Klux Klan in Tennessee
caused her people to invite the Ku Klux Klan from
Tennessee to form klans in Virginia in February,

KU KLUX KLAN, 1865-1877 201

1866, and it spread very rapidly and was the chief
means of allaying the spirit of resistance which had
risen in the hearts of the Virginia people, and a desire
on their part to begin the war again.

It was said that the legislation of the Southern
states with reference to the Freedmen was justifica-
tion for these severe terms of reconstruction imposed
upon them. This has also been made a ground
to justify the refusal of the House of Representa-
tives to admit the delegation elected from the
Southern states to the Thirty-ninth Congress, but
this excuse utterly failed in regard to Virginia, for her
representatives were refused admission on December
4, 1865, while the "Vagrant Act," the only statute
we have ever known specified as unfair to Freedmen,
was passed January 15, 1866.

General Terry published an order far and wide in
which he said the Virginia Act declared all persons
vagrant who broke a contract with an employer and
in this case authorized the employer to work the run-
away an additional month with ball and chain, if
necessary. Is it any wonder that by such false state-
ments as given in Terry's order the Northern heart
was fired against the South, but no such statute was
ever passed in Virginia.

General Robert E. Lee testified before the Recon-
struction Committee at Washington on February 17,
1866, that he believed the people of the South would
uphold the government of the United States for the
future. "I believe that they entirely acquiesce in
the government of the United States and that they

202 AUTHENTIC HISTORY

are for cooperating with President Johnson m his
policy in regard to the restoration of the whole
country; they have confidence in the wisdom of
his policy and look forward to it as a hope of
restoration."

Mr. Blow of the Committee said to General Lee:
"Suppose that this policy of President Johnson
should be all that you anticipate and that you should
realize all that you expect in the improvement of
your material interests, do you think that the result
would be gradual restoration of the old feeling?"

General Lee said: "That would be the natural
result and I see no other way in which that result
can be brought about and it would be the surest and
speediest."

The greatness of the soul of General Lee was
shown by his earnest urging of the Southern people
to accept the result of the war and to stay in the
South and rebuild it. He did all in his power to
calm them in every way and the succeeding years
have proven how much he had won the heart of the
South and the whole country as well for his wisdom
in peace as they had loved him for his bravery in war.

General Lee had the faith of a crusader. He
prayed for his men and also for his enemies in arms.
He was always the gentle Christian, and is it any
wonder that men would follow him into the jaws of
death?

Robert Edward Lee was descended from Lionel
Lee who crossed the English Channel with William
the Conqueror, and another ancestor fought with

KU KLUX KLAN, 1865-1877 203

Richard the Lion-hearted at Acre in the Third Cru-
sade. His first American ancestor was a great
Virginian and had much influence in the Virginia
colony; his grandson, Henry Lee, was the grand-
father of "Lighthorse Harry" Lee who was a soldier
of the American Revolution and the father of Robert
E. Lee.

General Lee was with General Scott in Mexico
in the Mexican War and he said of him: "My suc-
cess was largely due to the skill, valor and undaunted
courage of Capt. Robert E. Lee, and Lee is the
greatest military genius in America and the best
soldier that I ever saw in the field. He will some
day show himself the foremost captain of his time."
How true this prophecy. Is it any wonder that Mr.
Lincoln sent Mr. Francis P. Blair to General Lee,
who was stopping with him in his home on Pennsyl-
vania Avenue, Washington, D. C, just across the
street from the White House and offered him com-
mand of the Union forces in the Civil War? Robert
E. Lee declined and cast his lot with Virginia, sending
the message to President Lincoln: "I am a citizen of
Virginia, and all her laws and acts are binding on me."

These were General Lee's first words expressing
his feelings at the beginning of the war, and his last
words to his officers when he felt he was forced to
surrender were: "I could wish I had fallen in the
last battle," and turning to General John B. Gordon,
"but it is our duty to live, for what will become of the
women and children of the South if we are not here
to protect and support them."

204 AUTHENTIC HISTORY

General Gordon told me that when the Anti-Ku
Klux law was passed in Tennessee that he and Gen-
eral Forrest went to Virginia and asked General
Lee if they should disband and he said: "The women
and children must be protected," and turning with
eyes full of tears towards them urged them that they
strengthen the Ku Klux Klan and drive the desper-
adoes who were committing crimes in their name
from southern soil.

He assured them that he did not believe that his
brave soldiers would stoop to such deeds as they were
accused of as Ku Klux. He told them he had faith
in their power to save the South to the Union, but he
did not live to see all of this accomplished, but his
beloved Virginia was readmitted before he died.

General Gordon told me that General Forrest
hoped General Lee would join the Ku Klux Klan, but
he said: "I am still an unpardoned prisoner," and
turning away he knelt and prayed for the redemption
of the South.

General Lee said to them that he had been suffer-
ing with rheumatism of the heart since 1863 and
that he would not last very long, but he was not
stricken until September 28, 1870. While at his
breakfast table as he stood and said grace he col-
lapsed and was carried to his bed from which he never
rallied, dying at 9 o'clock October 12, 1870, fighting
to the last, in his dying hour for his beloved South,
his last words being: "Tell Hill he must come up."
This order in his dying words was the same he sent
to General A. P. Hill at one of the battles.

KU KLUX KLAN, 1865-1877 205

"No section of the country suffered in the Civil
War as did the Valley of the Shenandoah except
from Alexandria to the Rapidan," was said by
Charles Douglas Gray of Augusta County, Vir-
ginia, to the Reconstruction Committee at Wash-
ington in 1866.

"From Harper's Ferry to New Market, 80 miles,
it was a complete desert — no fences; barns, and
dwellings burned — chimneys standing without houses
and houses without chimneys; bridges all gone and
roads destroyed; all fruit trees and timber ruined
and only the blue sky and the impoverished ground
was left to show where once had been the finest civili-
zation the world had ever known."

When Mr. Gray was asked by a member of the
Committee what they would do when they planted
wheat to keep the stock out of the fields he replied
that General Sheridan had not left any stock to get
in the fields nor any implements with which to plant
the wheat. Mr. Gray said that the people of his
county were for the Union until State pride
made them give it up; and that it was a Scotch-
Irish population and when their blood was heated
there was not a more tenacious people in the world.

They were the last to go into the war and they
were the last to give it up. He was asked if he
thought the secessionists would take up arms for the
United States if it should have a contest with Eng-
land or France. He replied: "The Secessionists
hate England for not recognizing the Confederacy;
and the Southern people were more dissatisfied

206 AUTHENTIC HISTORY

with England's course towards them than the United
States were with her course toward them, — they hate
England for her duplicity in not helping them, and
in a war with England they would stand by the
United States Government."

When Mr. Gray was asked about the negro, he
said: "The negroes are in a very unsettled, restless
condition and should be put to work. They have no
idea of the expense of living."

When asked if the negro was susceptible to re-
ligion, he said: "He prefers the emotional kind, the
Methodist and Baptist," and that he was supersti-
tious, but not more so than some white people he had
known everywhere.

In regard to Lincoln's policy of reconstruction,
Harpers Weekly Nov. 10, 1866, said: "It is worth-
while to understand what President Lincoln's policy
would have been, for whatever his action during the
war, he died before he could develop a policy of res-
toration."

The Honorable Chas. A. Dana, Asst. Sec'y of
War during the latter part of Lincoln's administra-
tion, made a most important statement in a speech at
the time of President Lincoln's death, showing pre-
cisely what Mr. Lincoln's opinion was: "I can af-
firm that previous to the assassination of Mr. Lincoln
the reconstruction of Virginia was considered by the
Cabinet, and a printed document was prepared set-
ting forth the plan of reconstruction to be adopted
in regard to that state.

"That printed document never became official, but

KU KLUX KLAN, 1865-1877 207

it met the hearty approval of Mr. Lincoln. That
plan of reconstruction provided for the calling of a
Convention to amend the Constitution of the State
of Virginia, and stated most positively that all loyal
citizens whether white or black, should be allowed
to vote, and it further stipulated that rebels should
be denied the right of suffrage." That was Mr. Lin-
coln's idea of reconstruction.

In 1866 Thomas M. Cook testified before the Re-
construction Committee at Washington and gave an
account of the order issued by President Lincoln
to General Weitzel to call the Legislature of Virginia
together to reconsider her readmission into the Union
when requested to do so by Judge John A. Campbell
of Virginia. President Lincoln said to Judge Camp-
bell: "I consider it extremely important that the
body which attempted to take the State out of the
Union should repair the damage done."

The next day President Lincoln wrote General
Weitzel a note while he was still in Virginia author-
izing him to call the Legislature of Virginia together
and General Weitzel issued the call and the people of
Virginia were rejoiced believing they would soon
be at home in the Union. But they were to meet
with bitter disappointment for Mr. Lincoln returned
to Washington and immediately wired General Weit-
zel to cancel the order for the assembling of the Legis-
lature and ordering General Weitzel to collect all the
papers he had given Judge Campbell outlining the
plan for taking Virginia back into the Union and
suppress them.

208 AUTHENTIC HISTORY

This act has been considered by Southern men as
a most powerful argument that President Lincoln
had changed his mind in regard to any just plan of
readmitting the Southern states, and led to the hor-
rors of subsequent reconstruction.

Mr. Cook who was the correspondent for the New
York Herald said he saw the plan offered by Presi-
dent Lincoln to Judge Campbell and that it was very
Lincolnish and was as follows: "Three things are
essential to peace: First, complete disbandment
of all forces in hostility to the United States; Sec-
ond, a full recognition of the authority of the gov-
ernment of the United States throughout all the ter-
ritory in which that authority had been resisted;
and, Third, no recession by the Executive from his
position on the question of Emancipation as pro-
claimed in his message to Congress and in other
documents."

Had this plan been carried out by President
Lincoln the South would not have been a victim of
his want of decision, by the horrors of reconstruction.

General U. S. Grant laid the blame for President
Lincoln's recalling the order to General Weitzel at
the door of Edwin M. Stanton, Secretary of War, but
however that may be it was a cruel blow to Virginia,
It was generally believed that Mr. Lincoln favored
the policy of restoration, and especially of Virginia,
to the Union with the last possible friction. This
belief seemed to rest on a sound basis for a while.

During President Lincoln's visit to Richmond
immediately upon its occupation by the Federal

KU KLUX KLAN, 1865-1877 209

forces in 1865, he held two or three interviews with
Judge Campbell, formerly of the Supreme Court
of the United States and later of the Confederate
War Office, and with other citizens among them
Judge Henry W. Thomas who was Lieut. Governor
of the state.

The expressions of President Lincoln in these con-
versations were marked by common sense and the
vigor of expression characteristic of him. Judge
Campbell said he told him "he wanted the very legis-
lature which had been sitting up yonder, pointing to
the capitol, to come together, and to vote to restore
Virginia to the Union and recall her soldiers from
the Confederate Army."

Judge Thomas said in answer to his suggestion
that Governor Pierpont be sent down to Rich-
mond, the President replied that he did not want
him, adding "the government that took Virginia out
of the Union should bring her back and is the
government that alone can effect it. They must
come here to the very place they went out of the
Union, to come back, and you people will doubtless
all return and we shall have old Virginia back again.
By Jove! I want that old game cock back again."

Abraham Lincoln said: "We cannot escape his-
tory," and it is my intention to show that he cannot
"escape history" made by himself any more than other
men who have played a part on the stage of life. He
cannot escape responsibility for the reconstruction
which was begun by his change of mind in regard
to the meeting of the Legislature of Virginia.

210 AUTHENTIC HISTORY

He cannot escape responsibility for the Civil War
— for this the South has been blamed but such is not
a fact. The fort of Charleston was built by the Fed-
eral Government, on land belonging to South Caro-
lina and was held in trust for the defense of Charles-
ton. The land was ceded to the United States by
South Carolina for that purpose only.

When the Confederate States of America formed
a separate government commissioners were sent to
Washington to adjust these property rights and ar-
range for the honorable transfer of the property.

President Lincoln had been inaugurated and Mr.
W. H. Seward was his Secretary of War and he re-
fused to see these commissioners. They then ap-
pealed to two Justices of the Supreme Court of the
United States to negotiate for them and Justice
Nelson appealed to Mr. Seward to refrain from re-
enforcing Fort Sumpter by force for such "is a
serious violation of the Constitution.' * This was the
first of the acts of President Lincoln in disregard
of the Constitution of the United States for which
he had no respect whatever, as all his subsequent
acts will reveal.

Mr. Seward told Justice Campbell that "the delay
in evacuating Fort Sumpter was accidental," and
on the day before this when he gave assurance that
the garrison would be withdrawn he had sent a man
to Charleston to see by what means the Fort might
be not evacuated but reenforced.

On April 7, 1861, Justice Campbell heard rumors

KU KLUX KLAN, 1865-1877 211

of regarrisoning the Fort and wrote to Mr. Seward
in regard to this hostile movement.

Mr. Seward replied to him: "Faith as to Fort
Sumpter fully kept. Wait and see." Regardless of
this promise made by his Secretary of War, and in
opposition to several of his Cabinet Officers, the Com-
mander-in-Chief of the Army, and of Major Ander-
son who was commanding Fort Sumpter, President
Lincoln ordered 26 guns, 2400 men and 11 war ves-
sels to enter Charleston Harbor to take provisions
to 60 men.

On April 12 General G. T. Beauregard expecting
the fleet to enter the harbor at any minute, sent
Major Anderson word that he would open fire, and
when the fleet was in sight of the fort, General Beau-
regard "fired the shot that was heard around the
world," as the first War Order had been issued at
Montgomery, Alabama, April 9, 1861, "Fire on Fort
Sumpter." President Lincoln immediately called
for 75,000 troops, which act was unconstitutional,
for Congress is the only power in our government
authorized to declare war. The commissioners from
South Carolina with the hopeful message that Fort
Sumpter would not be held by the Federal Govern-
ment were on the same train with President Lincoln's
representatives who were going to each Governor to
have him issue the call for these troops.

The great English historian, Hallam, says: "The
aggressor in war, that is, he who begins it is not the
first who uses force, but the first who renders force
necessary."

XIII.
MISSISSIPPI.

The measures enacted to prevent the extension of
slavery in the Territory was the first time the State
of Mississippi had given any consideration to the
policy of secession, and as early as 1849 held a con-
vention at Jackson to oppose this plan. Another was
held in 1851 and the convention resolved to agree
to the compromise measures of 1850 as a final ad-
justment of the controversy over slavery.

In this convention it was resolved that "the union
was held second only in importance to the rights and
principles which it was designed to perpetuate,"
and it was said there that the right of secession was
unconstitutional.

At this time there was no secession sentiment of
importance in the State, but in 1852 "Uncle Tom's
Cabin" was published, and this with other events
created bitter feeling toward the North, and the elec-
tion of Abraham Lincoln to the Presidency added
to this feeling.

The secession cause was led by Mr. L. Q. C.
Lamar. In 1861 and on January 9, the ordinance of
secession was adopted by 84 to 15 votes. Jefferson
Davis was United States Senator from Mississippi
and on the 12th of January resigned his seat there

212

GENERAL JOHN B. GORDON

of Georgia, Confederate States Army
Assistant "Grand Wizard" of the Invisible Empire

(Courtesy oi "Confederate Veteran.")

KU KLUX KLA2J, 1865-1877 213

after endorsing the action of his State on secession
in a magnificent farewell address.

The Governor of Mississippi said the call to arms
has been responded to in Mississippi in a manner un-
known to modern times, and the call for means to
support the volunteers is being answered in a way
to gratify the heart of every patriot. The women
of the State responded to the call for assistance in
such a manner as to call for thanks from the Legisla-
ture. Many persons offered private funds to equip
the soldiers. Jefferson Davis and Jacob Thompson
gave $24,000.

The part played by Mississippi subsequent to this
is well known, and is not intended to be a part
of this history, but these points have been given to
convince the most skeptical reader that although hop-
ing against hope that she would not be compelled
to withdraw from the Union, that she gave a good
account of herself when forced to do so in defense of
her States rights.

During the war that followed 47 battles were
fought on Mississippi soil, the siege of Vicksburg
lasted 47 days. In 1860 the census gave 79 thousand
white men of military age while the enlistments of
the Confederates during the entire war were 78
thousand ; and, with what determination and bravery
they resisted the invasion of their state is shown by
the fact that 25,000 Federal soldiers killed during
the war lie buried in Mississippi soil.

Later on in the war the hardships became so great
in the army that it was not easy to fill the gaps made

214 AUTHENTIC HISTORY

in their ranks on many battlefields, and General For-
rest issued a call for all males from 15 to 65 to rally
to his support. He said he would "rob the cradle and
the grave" in his effort to win the war. The legis-
lature voted a resolution of thanks and a sword to
General Forrest when he vowed to press all "skul-
kers" and "deserters" into the Confederate Army.

Early in the war salt became a scarcity and specu-
lators begun selling it for high prices, but the Legis-
lature came to the rescue and regulated the price. It
was so scarce that many would evaporate salt water
and obtain a coarse salt; the dirt under the old
smoke houses was distilled and used again.

The war developed many ingenious ways of mak-
ing the necessities of life. Flour was $75 to $200
a barrel; sugar $2 a pound; coffee $5 a pound; salt
$45 a bushel; men's shoes $30 a pair; women's shoes
$50 to $75 a pair ; cotton goods $30 per yard ; water-
melons $25 a piece, and mules $700.

After the invasion of Mississippi many of the citi-
zens refugeed to other states and left many of their
slaves who were unwilling to go, and they wandered
into the Federal Camps where thousands of them
were fed by the United States Government and this
was the first cause of their being lazy and shiftless;
and one of the Federal Officers, General Lorenzo
Thomas, told them they must work or starve and that
the men who were telling them they were to be given
the land that belonged to the white people had lied
to them.

Had others told them the truth a different story

KU KLUX KLAN, 1865-1877 215

could be told of the years of reconstruction, however,
many of the best class of negroes did not leave their
masters and continued with their work as was proven
by the amount of cotton grown in Mississippi and
other states.

As soon as the surrender of the Confederate Army
was completed the United States Government had
the idea that surrender meant the giving up of all
their cherished sentiments and all their rights, public
and private, and on this ground began the gigantic
struggle known as reconstruction and was continued
for more than eleven years until the Ku Klux Klan
reconstructed for themselves and came back into the
Union.

The history of the country from 1865 to 1877 will
show positively that the Ku Klux Klan restored
these states to the Union when the United States
Government intended to keep them out. More than
a year before the reconstruction investigation com-
menced the Commander-in-Chief of the Army of the
United States had declared the war at an end.

The chief executive of the United States had
recognized the government of seceding states as legal
and many of the men engaged in the war received
executive pardon, but Congress ignored all of these
facts and proceeded to dissolve the Union. Every
form of deviltry that the mind of man could conceive
was invented and charged against the people and it
is well to note that as this injustice increased the or-
ganization known as the Ku Klux Klan rose in power.

I wish to call the reader's special attention to the

216 AUTHENTIC HISTORY

fact that the Ku Klux Klan was not even thought
of by its founders until December 24, 1865, and then
note carefully the condition of Mississippi (which
is typical of all of the Southern States) at the date,
November 20, 1865, when Benjamin G. Humphreys,
Governor of Mississippi, in his message to the Gen-
eral Assembly said: "What are the evils that have
already arisen against which we are to guard the
negro and the State?

"The answer is patent to all — vagrancy and pau-
perism, and their inevitable concomitant, crime and
misery, hovering like a dark pall over a once pros-
perous and happy but now desolated land. To the
guardian care of the Freedmen's Bureau has been
entrusted the emancipated slaves. Look around you
and see the results!

"Our rich and productive fields have been deserted
by them for filthy garrets and sickly towns. From
producers they have been converted into consum-
ers, and as winter approaches their only salvation
from starvation is Federal rations and pillage and
plunder.

"Four years of cruel war conducted on principles
of vandalism disgraceful to the civilization of the
age was scarcely more blighting and destructive to
the homes of the white man, and impoverishing and
degrading to the negro than the result in the last six
or eight months from the administration of this black
incubus. How long will this hideous curse be
allowed to ruin our people?

"Tax the Freedmen for the support of the helpless

KU KLUX KLAN, 1865-1877 217

Freedmen, and then with an iron will and a strong
hand of power take hold of the idler and the vagrant
and force him to some profitable employment for
the support of his family and the education of his
children, by laws assuring him of our friendship and
protection."

Governor Humphreys said that by the emancipa^
tion of over 300,000 slaves in Mississippi it imposed
upon her a problem of vast magnitude the proper
solution of which depended the hope and future
prosperity of ourselves and our children.

Governor Humphreys was not the regular nom-
inee for civil governor of Mississippi in 1865 but was
elected by his comrades in arms who by this act indi-
cated that Confederate soldiers were preferred over
those who did not fight for the State.

In his own words, when elected, "I am yet an un-
pardoned rebel. I have taken the amnesty oath and
forwarded an application for special pardon, and am
desirous of renewing my allegiance to the United
States Government." President Johnson sent Gen-
eral Humphreys a pardon on October the first, and
he was inaugurated on Oct. 16, but for some time he
was denied recognition by the United States as
Governor.

General J. Z. George, Brigadier General in the
Confederate States Army and a brilliant lawyer was
appointed by General Forrest as Grand Dragon of
the Ku Klux Klan, of the Realm of Mississippi, and
from that time on he was her great leader and in 1875
redeemed this state from radical and negro rule,

218 AUTHENTIC HISTORY

but not until this grand old state had suffered the
humiliation of having two negro senators in the
United States Senate and fifteen or twenty other
negro officials, state and national.

General George, afterwards Senator from Missis-
sippi, by his contructive statesmanship in devising
means to safeguard Southern civilization by the elimi-
nation of the negro vote, will cause his name to shine
for all time as a great constitutional lawyer and bene-
factor of the South. It was under his leadership that
Mississippi led in disfranchising the negro and prac-
tically every Southern state has followed this plan.

After General George had redeemed Mississippi
from "carpet-bag rule" he went to South Carolina
and assisted General William H. Wallace in con-
ducting the Ku Klux Klan until that State was also
raised from her ashes and reinstated into the Union.

General George recommended to the men in South
Carolina to impress the negroes both as to the
strength and purpose of the whites in their determin-
ation to redeem the state by using a spectacular uni-
form different from the Ku Klux Klan and urged a
parade of long processions of armed white men
through the country. This plan was accepted and
from this was founded the "Red Shirts of South
Carolina" as their regalia was trimmed in red imitat-
ing blood stains.

Col. George W. Croft took up the scheme sug-
gested by Gen. George and gave orders for the nec-
essary yellow home-spun to make the gruesome
regalia. The cloth was distributed one afternoon

KU KLUX KLAN, 1865-1877 219

among the ladies of the country and they were in-
structed to make them appear as large as Goliath of
Gath would have worn.

These large shirts were turned into a flag with
arms stretched over a cross piece and dough faces
with kinky chignons were fastened to the top of this
cross so as to make a grinning negro head from either
side. Satan's appeal to the fallen angels was em-
blazoned in large black letters on either side:
"Awake, arise, or be forever fallen."

In regard to falsehoods about Mississippi Ku Klux
Klan outrages stated by H. B. Whitfield, Mr.
Mathew Clay, of Brooksville, Miss., sent a sworn
affidavit to the Committee of Congress saying: "I
met Mr. Whitfield on the train as he was going to
Washington and I asked him about the attack of the
negroes on a Mr. Bridges of Bigby Valley, Noxubee
County, Mississippi.

"I told him in substance, if he was going before the
Washington Ku Klux Committee he ought to state
the affair in which some armed negroes attacked Mr.
Bridges at night; that I thought it ought to be
shown that lawlessness existed among the negroes,
or, in other words, all the so-called Ku Klux out-
rages did not originate among the white people of the
South, but with the blacks who are not Ku Klux.

"Mr. Clay said that Mr. Whitfield misrepresented
him in his testimony and that he received a letter from
him in which he said he misrepresented him, and is
willing to put it in writing, which he did."

220

AUTHENTIC HISTORY

During the Civil War the "Bonny Blue Flag" was
first sung in a local theatre in Mississippi for General
Nathan B. Forrest when he was assisting the people
of Mississippi to recruit the Confederate States
Army.

XIV.
GEORGIA.

In 1865 the Confederacy had fallen and Jefferson
Davis had been made a prisoner on Georgia soil.
He was taken away, was confined, and chains riveted
upon him; was placed in prison and kept there two
years without trial or bail.

There was a complete collapse financially of the
State of Georgia from the Tennessee line to Savan-
nah, Ga., covering Sherman's March to the Sea. He
destroyed everything in his pathway for a region
twenty miles wide. Everything was destroyed,
schools, homes, crops, farming implements, railroads
and even the lunatics and deaf and dumb were turned
out without shelter.

Women and small girls were criminally assaulted
by Sherman's army; cities were burned; Atlanta
lay completely in ashes, but the devotion of the
people to each other through all these misfortunes has
no parallel in history. Persecution only endeared
them to each other.

The population of Georgia in 1860 was 591,550
and the state furnished to the Confederate army
120,000 soldiers and the entire people pledged their
lives and fortunes in support of the Southern cause.

221

222 AUTHENTIC HISTORY

When the war was over and they wished again to
claim all rights they had at the beginning of the war
it was denied them.

The governor was arrested by soldiers and lodged
in prison, but later Georgia was readmitted to the
Union and then denied the privilege because she
refused to give the negro the vote and she was again
made a part of the "Military District" which
included Alabama and Florida and others.

The Freedmen's Bureau established in Georgia
began to sow seeds of mistrust between the negroes
and their former owners and this accounts for the
hostility which ensued between the races and made
the organization of the Ku Klux Klan a necessity and
led that state to become one of the "Solid South"
against the Republican party.

General Gordon stated at Washington in the Ku
Klux Klan investigations, "That the Union League
and Carpet-baggers were organizing the negroes and
we were afraid to have a public organization because
we supposed it would be construed at once by the
authorities of Washington as an organization antago-
nistic to the Government of the United States.

"It was therefore necessary in order to protect our
families from outrage and preserve our own lives, to
have something that we could regard as a brother-
hood — a combination of the best men of the country
to act purely in self defense, to repel the attack in
case we should be attacked by these people; mainly
confined to soldiers of the Confederate States Army,
men who had shown themselves plucky and ready for

KU KLUX KLAN, 1865-1877 223

any emergency, and who were accustomed to
command.

"We never had any apprehension from the conduct
of the negroes until unscrupulous men came among
them and tried to stir up strife. But for such men we
never would have had any trouble with the negro and
would not have any now. We can get along forever
with the negro, loving him and having him love us,
if you will take away these Carpet-baggers.

"I am willing to swear until I am gray that the
negroes and the white people can live together in
Georgia peaceably and happily if they are not inter-
fered with.

"The feeling of resentment against the reconstruc-
tion policy of Congress was intensified by the admis-
sion of the State of Georgia to the Union with the
Constitution upon which the people refused to vote."

These words were spoken to the Committee Inves-
tigating the Condition of Affairs in the Insurrec-
tionary States by General Gordon, and it is said in
the report of the committee "that the feelings of the
people of the South at the close of the War between
the States, and the successive phases through which
they have passed since then are so candidly stated by
General John B. Gordon of Georgia that he may be
fairly quoted as representing them in all of the
Southern States, and that his opinion is of the highest
value, and is especially so when it is remembered that
he became the Commander of Stonewall Jackson's
Corps at his death and at the surrender was in the
command of the left wing of Lee's Army. That he

224 AUTHENTIC HISTORY

was Governor of Georgia and not under disabilities.
General Gordon said: "I know that the general
feeling of the North is that our people are hostile
toward the Government of the United States.

"Upon that point I wish to testify; I want to state
what I know upon that subject. I know very well
that if the program which our people saw set on foot
at Appomattox Court House when Lee surrendered
had been carried out — if our people had been met in
the spirit which we believe existed there among the
officers and soldiers from General Grant down we
would have had no further disturbance in the South.
There is no question about that.

"But to say to our people, 'You are unworthy to
vote ; you cannot hold office ; we are unwilling to trust
you; you are not honest men; your former slaves are
better fitted to administer the laws than you are' —
this sort of dealing with our people has emphatically
alienated us.

"The burning of Atlanta and all the devastation
throughout the South never created a tithe of the
animosity that has been created by this sort of treat-
ment of our people.

"The feeling is that you have denied that we will
abide by our plighted faith.

"We do not think we have done anything in the
dark. We think that when we tried to secede from
the Union we did it boldly, fairly and squarely, stak-
ing our lives on the issue. We thought we were right.
I am one who thought at the time that we had a
perfect right to do what we did.

KU KLUX KLAN, 1865-1877 225

"Our people were conscientious when they took the
obligation at Appomattox and elsewhere after Lee's
surrender, and we would have long since had a very
different state of things if the Government had kept
their part of the contract contained in our parole. I
believe that as firmly as I believe in my existence.

"I know it was generally felt that there was shown
toward the officers and men who surrendered at Ap-
pomattox Court House a degree of courtesy and even
deference which was surprising and gratifying — and
which produced at the time a very fine effect.

"Whether right or wrong, it is the impression of
the Southern mind — it is the conviction of my own
mind, in which I am perfectly sincere and honest that
we have not been met in the proper spirit.

"We believe that if our people had been treated in
the spirit which we thought was manifested at Ap-
pomattox — a spirit which implied that there had been
a conflict of theories, an honest difference of opinion
as to our rights under the General Government — a
difference upon which the South had adopted one con-
struction, and the North another, both parties having
vindicated their sincerity upon the field in a contest
which now had been fought out was to be forgotten
— if this had been the spirit there would have been no
alienation.

"We felt as honest men that we should be trusted
and we thought that ought to be the last of it. That
was the way that we felt at the South, by the course
that has been pursued toward us, since the surrender

226 AUTHENTIC HISTORY

we have been disappointed and the alienation has thus
been increased. "

General Gordon referred to a speech he made in
Montgomery, Alabama, in which he spoke of the
behavior of the negroes during the war when left to
protect the women and children; when all the male
population were away fighting and large plantations
were left to be managed by the women not a single
insurrection had occurred, not a life had been taken,
not a criminal assault had been made upon any white
woman by the negroes, although the Federal Army
was inciting them to turn against their masters, and
the helpless women and children.

This handsome behavior of the negroes was also
praised at this time by General James H. Clanton,
of Alabama, and in reward for it we both said the
Southern people owed it to the negroes to educate
them and give them a chance to rise within the con-
fines of their race. Many negroes heard both
speeches and came forward and thanked us.

The entire heart of Georgia and the South appre-
ciates the conduct of the negroes during the war.

General John B. Gordon was elected United
States Senator from Georgia by the General As-
sembly, and it was a signal victory for him, as his
competitor was the most popular man of the state —
Honorable Alexander Stephens, who was an idol of
the people during a long career of service; he was
elected Senator after the Civil War, but was not ad-
mitted. General Gordon however received that
great honor, and the whole South was pleased for

KU KLUX KLAN, 1865-1877 227

he won his way to undying fame on the battle-fields
and was the embodiment of chivalry and patriotism.
Senator Gordon became a national figure in states-
manship, and fulfilled his trust brilliantly.

The "Gallant Gordon's'' military career being so
closely identified as it is with that of General Robert
E. Lee and therefore well known it is unnecessary
to describe it. He was one of the generals who made
the last stand for the Confederacy, and when he re-
ceived a message from General Lee on Apr. 9, 1865,
at daylight to know what chance he stood to attack the
Federals successfully, replied to General Lee, "My
old corps is reduced to a frazzle, and unless General
Longstreet can reach me at once, I can do nothing
more."

General Lee said, "I have nothing left but to see
General Grant." Colonel Venable who had brought
this message from General Gordon said to General
Lee, "O General what will history say about our sur-
render in the field?"

General Lee replied, "I know they will say harsh
things of us ; but they do not know how we are over-
whelmed by numbers; that is not the question; the
question is, is it right for me to surrender this army?
If it is right I will take all responsibility." These
words are considered the greatest utterance of Gen-
eral Robert E. Lee, and showed the noble spirit of
the most beloved chieftain of all history.

General John B. Gordon was well known to me,
and many times described this incident. After the
surrender, which took place on that day, General Gor-

228 AUTHENTIC HISTORY

don returned to Georgia, and became one of its most
honored citizens in peace as well as a valiant soldier in
war. In appearance he was every inch a soldier, and
retained his magnificent bearing until his death. Gen-
eral John B. Gordon was visiting Athens, Alabama,
in the Fall of Sixty-six, and became fascinated with
the movements of the Ku Klux Klan. He returned
to Georgia, and in the early part of the following year
organized Ku Klux Klans in that State, and attended
the convention of the Ku Klux Klan at Nashville in
1867. He was there appointed by General Nathan
B. Forrest, who was "Grand Wizard of the Invisible
Empire," to be Grand Dragon of the Realm of
Georgia.

General Gordon had a brother living at Athens,
Alabama, during the Seventies and he frequently
came there to meet General Forrest and to go to
Pulaski, the headquarters of the Ku Klux Klan, for
information. This brother, Major Eugene C. Gor-
don, was chaplain of the Limestone County division
of the Ku Klux Klan. He was a Baptist minister,
and Mr. Austin W. Smith, a Methodist minister, was
chaplain before Major Gordon came to Athens.

On one occasion General Gordon came hurriedly
to Athens to confer with the Ku Klux Klans, there
and at Pulaski, for a rumor had reached him from
Florida that a woman "carpet-bagger" had come
there and was making herself very obnoxious by
entertaining negroes in her home, and otherwise as-
sociating on intimate terms with them, and that there
was great excitement in the Southern part of Georgia

KU KLUX KLAN, 1865-1877 229

because it was said she was coming into that State.

He said he went to see who the woman was who
was creating so much ill feeling in South Georgia and
Florida, and found that it was Mrs. Harriet Beecher
St owe who had inflamed the world against the South
by her iniquitous novel "Uncle Tom's Cabin" which
President Lincoln said caused him to call for troops
and declare war on the South.

General Gordon said he had been told that Mrs.
Stowe had with her a wounded son who was a Federal
soldier and had almost lost his reason, and that there
should not be a blot on the South by having her or any
other woman, who came within its borders, molested.

He said he was informed that the spurious Ku
Klux Klan imitating the real Ku Klux Klan had de-
termined to drive her from the State by taking her
and her sick son on board a vessel for parts unknown,
and the Ku Klux Klan from the headquarters in
Pulaski sent a number of Ku Klux commanded by
Captain John C. Lester and he was joined at Mont-
gomery, Alabama, by General Jas. H. Clanton who
was Grand Dragon of the Realm of Alabama, and
they proceeded to Florida, and surrounded Mrs.
Stowe's plantation on which she was attempting to
raise cotton with free negro labor, and eventually
arrested the spurious Ku Klux Klan and from that
time until Mrs. Stowe left the South, she was guarded
by the gallant Ku Klux Klan, for many threats were
made to burn her home, and a school house and church
she built for the negroes were burned, but no harm
other than this ever came to her. General Gordon

230 AUTHENTIC HISTORY

gave me this information a few years before his
death, — to illustrate the gallantry and the fulfillment
of the ideal of the Ku Klux Klan to protect woman-
hood at all times, although Mrs. Stowe had so un-
justly brought on the war by her falsehoods in regard
to the system of slavery as operated in the South.

General Gordon was appointed by General Na-
than Bedford Forrest assistant Grand Dragon of the
Ku Klux Klan, when his health failed; he was the
leader in the field while General Forrest directed
the movements from his home.

General Gordon made many visits to Washington
in behalf of the South, and his last appeal was to
President Hayes to remove the troops from South
Carolina and save bloodshed and disaster which would
come if the officials elected by the people of South
Carolina were deprived of their privilege of serving
them.

General Gordon kept in close touch with the peo-
ple of the South as Commander-in-chief of the United
Confederate Veterans, and everywhere he went in
this capacity he was shown the highest appreciation
of his superior qualities as a soldier and citizen.

United Confederate Veterans' organization was
formed in New Orleans, June 10, 1889. The idea
for a large and united association came from Col.
J. F. Shipp, a gallant confederate soldier who was
at that time commander of Nathan Bedford Forrest
Camp of confederate veterans of Chattanooga, Ten-
nessee, the third that was organized.

Colonel Shipp was in New Orleans on business,

KU KLUX KLAN, 1865-1877 231

and while there suggested the united association, his
idea being to bring into a general order the State
camps as one in Virginia, and another in Tennessee
had been founded. The first meeting was held in
New Orleans, June 10, 1889, and the United Con-
federate Veterans was perfected with Mr. F. S.
Washington of New Orleans, President, and Mr.
J. H. Chalaron, Sec'y.

A constitution was adopted, and Lieutenant-
General John B. Gordon of Georgia was elected
Commander-in-chief, and served in this capacity until
his death.

One of the highest tributes ever paid General Gor-
don was by Corra Harris, a famous Georgia writer.
In one of her recent articles in the Saturday Evening
Post, she wrote that General Gordon said, "should he
be elected Governor of Georgia, he would kiss all of
the girls in the state," and one of them which he
kissed had a ring worm on her cheek proving that he
was not even afraid of germs.

XV.

NORTH CAROLINA.

The reconstruction of the southern states was a
"crime against the principles of free government for
which no adequate punishment is provided by law."
In this catalogue is to be placed the betrayal of consti-
tutional liberty in its supreme home and by its espe-
cial guardians.

In the words of Zebulon B. Vance: "It was the
destruction of the flock by the shepherd; the robbing
of the ward by the guardian; the scandalizing of re-
ligion by a dissolute priest; the heinousness of such
offenses consists of an element of faithlessness — a
betrayal of trust — treachery."

This is a period in our history which should not be
forgotten but which deserves to be studied by every
patriot in the United States. To treat it from the
Northern standpoint, secession was considered a set-
tled question as several of the Northern states had
considered seceding from the Union.

The Southern states believed they had a right to
secede from the Union and repealed their ordinances
by which they had accepted the Constitution of the
Union, but the Northern states said: "No, you cannot
do that.

"Your ordinances of repeal are void; you are still

232

KU KLUX KLAN, 1865-1877 233

in the Union and subject to the Constitution. Your
attempt to maintain the validity of your ordinances
by force is simply insurrection and rebellion which
we are bound by the Constitution to suppress," and
they began the Civil War and suppressed it, and their
slogan in the beginning to induce men from the
Northern states to join the army against the Southern
states was: "Join the Army and help restore the
Union."

Many northern men were opposed to the coercing
of Southern states whose soil had been invaded, but
the popular appeal to restore the Union was the only
thing that filled up the ranks of the Federal Army.
When General Robert E. Lee gave up his sword to
General Ulysses S. Grant everybody supposed that
the Federal Army had saved the Union.

Despotic governments exercised confiscation but
under our government the right of sovereignty over
any portion of the states is given and limited by the
Constitution and was supposed to be the same after
the war as it was before.

Indeed the moment the rebellion was suppressed
and the government growing out of it was subverted,
the ancient laws resumed their accustomed sway sub-
ject only to the new reorganization by the proper
appointment of officers to give them operation and
effect.

There were only two ways by which a state could
withdraw from the Union: — "Legally by virtue of
their ordinances or by force of arms. As the legality
was denied and the resort to force was a failure the

234 AUTHENTIC HISTORY

conclusion is unavoidable, that they were in the
Union, — subject to all the requirements and entitled
to all the privileges under the Constitution."

President Johnson immediately after the war ap-
pointed temporary governors with authority to ap-
point other officials and directed them to call
conventions to form new constitutions and recognize
the state governments in all branches.

He invited them under their new constitution to
elect senators and representatives to Congress in
their former way. North Carolina immediately fol-
lowed these instructions and was recognized by Presi-
dent Johnson as a member of the Union.

"Notwithstanding this fact Congress for purely
political reasons proceeded to treat all of these states
as outside of the Union and as alien communities who
were to be dealt with anew under the laws of conquest
and admitted to the Union on conditions of its own
imposing."

These states were Democratic in politics; and it
was not desirable to have the Union restored by the
admission of eleven democratic states — that would
seriously endanger the power of the Republican
party.

Congress determined on conditions that would
strengthen not weaken the Republican party and as
they could no longer refuse their Representatives in
Congress their seats, to do this they dissolved the
Union by an Act of Congress, declaring that they
were out of the Union.

They were placed under military rule, civil

KU KLUX KLAN, 1865-1877 235

authority was abolished and every civil magistrate
displaced by military and "carpet-bag" officials. All
this was done several years after the war had ended
without the slightest provocation on the part of the
Southern states save only that they would vote the
Democratic ticket. The negroes were invited to vote
though their suffrage was neither known to state or
federal law while all other leading citizens were dis-
franchised.

In addition to this Senators and Representatives
were denied admission at the doors of Congress.
"No fact of history is more notorious. Naturally
there could be no other than the worst of con-
sequences attending a procedure thus begun in fraud
and false pretense, and supported by force. Our
English-speaking race has not known its like since
the plunder of Ireland in the Sixteenth Century."

In the face of these facts is it any wonder that the
Ku Klux Klan rose in power to rescue their state
from such a condition which she succeeded in doing
in 1870 after having suffered every humiliation at
the hands of the scalawag governor, W. W. Holden,
the man appointed provisional Governor of North
Carolina after Governor Zebulon B. Vance had been
ousted from this office to which he had been legally
elected?

In the words of Zebulon B. Vance: "The people
of North Carolina submitted with long-suffering pa-
tience. They were spirit-broken by the results of
the war — the desolation of their homes and the
slaughter of their sons. They were worn down to the

236 AUTHENTIC HISTORY

earth by the degradation imposed upon them by the
negro-equality of the Civil Rights Bill and all the
racking evils of the times. But a day was coming
when their ancient spirit was once more to reassert
itself."

The Ku Klux Klan, led by Zebulon B. Vance,
Grand Dragon of the Realm of North Carolina, suc-
ceeded in driving from their soil the "carpet-baggers"
and all other kinds of invaders, and impeached W. W.
Holden from the office of Governor.

I will not attempt to describe the causes of im-
peachment except the misuse of the military, the sus-
pension of the right of writ of habeas corpus and laws
passed to suppress the Ku Klux Klan. Some facts
regarding the falsehoods which were stated before the
Committee of Congress Investigating Affairs of the
Late Insurrectionary States, will be given. One
of the most notorious and most dangerous of these
false witnesses was one William R. Howie, from
Chatham County, North Carolina.

He swore before the Committee to the "Ku Klux-
ing" of men and women, white and black, because of
their loyalty; detailed his sufferings on account of his
political principles; showed how bravely he had re-
sisted, and how fearlessly he had brought to justice
the rebel Ku Klux ; he was a rare combination of the
hero and the martyr.

Unfortunately for him an old republican, Elias
Bryant, from his neighborhood, was called to testify
on other matters, but it leaked out incidentally that

KU KLUX KLAN, 1865-1877 237

he knew all about the outrages to which Howie had
sworn.

We quote from his evidence: When asked: "what
kind of fellow is Howie?" He said: "Mr. Howie
came to my house about eleven months ago. I looked
upon him as a gentleman. He said he wanted to
stay with me three or four days. I let him stay.
After staying three or four days he paid me up like
a gentleman.

"His general character through the country is very
bad. I am bound to say that. I was told not to trust
him, and that he was a man of no truth. He left our
neighborhood about the latter part of April, and went
to Richmond about the time the Buchanan case came
up.

"In the Buchanan case, both men and women were
whipped.

"There was a house down here kept by an old
woman, from the North, the mother of a good many
children. About five years ago she had a black child,
— after she drove off her husband, a weak, pitiful
kind of a fellow.

"She put up a distillery, making about a gallon of
whiskey at a time. Her visitors are mostly colored
men. She was a woman of very bad character and
the character of the girls she had about her were the
same.

"There was a woman by the name of Godfrey who
went to live with this woman. I saw her in Raleigh,
in a wagon with Mr. Howie. She had a little daugh-
ter about fifteen or sixteen years old, I suppose.

238 AUTHENTIC HISTORY

"She hired her out to a man named Dave Wickers.
I am told that she is a very nice little girl. Her
mother went after her to go there to this woman's
house. The little girl refused to go and Wickers re-
fused to give her up.

"The whole trouble grew out of this woman want-
ing to take that child to this old woman's house and
the man refusing to give her up." (The Ku Klux
rescued the girl.)

These are the sort of men upon whose testimony,
or rather on whose statements of what they profess
to have heard, Congress is expected to hold eleven
states and nearly ten millions of people under the
provisions of the Ku Klux bill, at the mercy of
President Grant and his subordinates, when he was
a candidate for re-election.

The whippings paraded by Howie, to avenge which
he was put in command of United States troops, by
whose aid he filled the jail in Raleigh with his ene-
mies, or those he desired to prosecute in order to
ingratiate himself with the Federal authorities, were
such as any honest people would have inflicted under
similar circumstances.

No man can read the evidence of Elias Bryant,
without feeling that Howie and his prostitutes, in try-
ing to force the unfortunate daughter of one of these
hags into such a den of infamy as Bryant describes,
to be the victim of the lust of Howie and his brutal
associates, white and black, ought to have been
whipped.

And if Colonel Schaffer had repeated the dose

KU KLUX KLAN, 1865-1877 239

when Howie, with "Old Sal," the "two girls, and the
Godfrey woman" appeared before him, instead of
prostituting his office and the Army of the United
States to imprison the men who had rescued the inno-
cent girl from the fate to which the brutes sought to
consign her, would have elevated himself in the esti-
mation of all honest men, even if he had been dis-
missed by the authorities at Washington for allowing
the opportunity to escape, to raise the cry of Ku
Klux, and malign the character of the people of
North Carolina.

Unfortunately for the country, just such men as
Howie have been the trusted agents of the United
States in all these persecutions; and the whole ma-
chinery of the courts and the military has been run
with an eye single to making political capital for the
radical party, and to put money into the pockets of
the tools used for that purpose.

A radical judge dismissed from the bar a leading
member of it because he wrote a letter to a member
of this committee stating facts which it was important
for the committee to know; of course the Supreme
Court reinstated him.

The Sehoffner Act, by which the governor of the
state was authorized to declare any county in the
state to be in insurrection, and was given power to
proclaim martial law, to arrest summarily and try
by a drum-head court all accused persons, and to
enable him to carry out this Act he was allowed to
raise regiments of soldiers, caused the growth of the
Ku Klux Klan.

240 AUTHENTIC HISTORY

One of these regiments was composed of negroes
and the others of deserters, renegades and cut-
throats. This vile assortment of men went to Raleigh
to be armed and equipped. The dignity of North
Carolina and the pride of her people rose with one
accord to resist these desperadoes and the Ku Klux
Klan, which had already been organized, was given
great impetus in 1870 and was rapidly increased to
meet the oncoming of these men who wished to fur-
ther degrade the great "Old North State."

It was with the greatest difficulty that the older
and more prudent men could restrain the Ku Klux
Klan, and fortunately for this situation an election
for Attorney General and the Legislature was soon
to be held in August 1870, at this time.

Troops were stationed at all points to intimidate
the voters and though Governor Holden had the sup-
port of President Grant the people went to the polls
determined to redeem their state, which they did, as
they were led by the Ku Klux Klan of North Caro-
lina assisted by General Forrest and others of the
"Invisible Empire."

The Legislature was largely Democratic, and it
proceeded promptly to repeal all obnoxious legisla-
tion — including the issue of bonds, the SchofTner Act
— and then impeached Governor Holden.

The Ku Klux Klan accomplished what they had
planned to do, and proceeded to South Carolina to
try and improve the conditions in that state.

The following letter is contained in the public rec-
ords of Congress pertaining to the Amnesty of Jef-

KU KLUX KLAN, 1865-1877 241

ferson Davis and speaks for itself as to the treatment
accorded Governor Holden by the Ku Klux Klan
for trying to arrest them instead of the spurious Ku
Klux Klan and for suggesting to President Grant to
have Congress enact the Federal Anti-Ku Klux
laws.

Mr. W. W. Holden, of Raleigh, N. C, said in
regard to the Amnesty proposition for Jefferson
Davis pending in the House of Representatives in a
letter to Mr. Blaine of that Congress :

"In 1870 I was impeached and removed from office
as governor of this state solely because of a move-
ment which I put on foot according to the Constitu-
tion and the law to suppress the bloody Ku Klux
Klan. This was done by the Democrats of this state,
the allies and the echoes of Northern Democrats.

"I was also disqualified by the judgment of re-
moval from holding office in this state. The Demo-
cratic Legislature of this State and its late Constitu-
tional Convention were appealed to in vain by my
friends to remove this disability.

"The late convention, in which the Democrats had
one majority by fraud, refused by a strict party vote
to remove my disabilities thus imposed; and I am
now the only man in North Carolina who cannot hold
office.

"I think these facts should be borne in mind when
the Democrats in Congress clamor for relief for the
late insurgent leaders."

Judge Albion Tourgee, who was a carpet-bag
Judge in North Carolina, said in a book he wrote, "A

242 AUTHENTIC HISTORY

Fool's Errand," about the Ku Klux Klan: "It was
a daring conception for a conquered people. Only a
race of warlike instincts and regal pride could have
conceived and executed it. It was a magnificent con-
ception, and, in a sense, deserved success. It differed
from all other attempts at revolution in the face of
the enemy, an enemy of overwhelming strength.
Should it succeed, it would be one of the most brilliant
revolutions ever accomplished. Should it fail — well,
those engaged in it felt that they had nothing else to
lose."

This is, indeed, a tribute to the Ku Klux Klan, as
it came from the enemy and one who claimed that he
had narrowly escaped death at the hands of the Ku
Klux Klan, and is significant.

A Prominent Citizen of North Carolina Called
to Testify Before the Ku Klux Investigating
Committee Defended the Ku Klux as Fol-
lows:

Washington, D. C, July 28, 1871.
Haywood W. Guion; (Mecklenburg, N. C.)

Called as witness by Mr. Blair, stated that he was
then residing in Charlotte, N. C, and that he was
born in the Eastern part of the state at Newbern.
He said he was a lawyer, and had never held any
public position.

Mr. Blair: "Answer generally whether the laws are
executed in your state, the laws against crimes espe-
cially."

KU KLUX KLAN, 1865-1877 243

Mr. Guion: "Well, they are generally executed, the
fault is in the judiciary, if anywhere."

Question: "They are perfectly safe in your state."

Answer: "Yes, sir, that is in some places there are
outbreaks, but this danger to property is from the
Loyal League — the burning of barns, the destruc-
tion of cattle, horses and mules."

Question: "Who compose the Loyal League?"

Answer: "I believe they are negroes and low white
people. I am pained to say that in our state the
judiciary system is a farce."

Question: "Does this opinion disincline the people
to refer their differences to the judiciary?"

Answer: "It inclines them in many cases to take the
law into their own hands; that is the law of nature.
A man will seek his own defense if he cannot get it
any other way."

Question: "Are there any other organizations than
the Loyal League?"

Answer: "As to the Ku Klux organization, I did
not know of it until the trials before the judges at
Raleigh last summer. And, the opinion that the
troubles arise from the incompetency of the judiciary
department is somewhat substantiated there by the
evidence because Judge Tourgee, in whom there is
very little confidence, is judge there. He is a for-
eigner, and thought to be a corrupt man."

Question: "Is it alleged and do you believe that this
organization (the Ku Klux Klan), has originated
there by reason of his incompetency?"

Answer: "Yes, sir, on account of his partiality in

244 AUTHENTIC HISTORY

punishing criminals, and in not sustaining the law as
he should."

Question: "And that is the ground upon which the
organization known as the Ku Klux Klan justifies
itself?"

Answer: "That is the only ground."

Question: "If you are at the head of it, it is a very
harmless Ku Klux Klan?"

Answer: "Very harmless"

Question: "You say there is a great deal of burning
of barns and killing of cattle, that is done princi-
pally by negroes?"

Answer: "Yes, sir, altogether I believe."

Question: "For what purpose?"

Answer: "The story we get is that the instructions
to them come from Raleigh where the head of the
Loyal League is. I believe if there had been no
Loyal League in North Carolina, there would have
been no Ku Klux Klan or clubbing together of white
people there."

Question : "You believe that one gave cause for the
origin of the other?"

Answer: "I have no doubt of it."

XVI.
TEXAS.

The great State of Texas was separated from the
United States by an ordinance of secession in a con-
vention of the people on the first day of February
1861 and became one of the Confederate States of
America. She furnished many thousands of troops
to the Confederate army and did her full duty in
that great struggle. But at the close of the war she
was in a much better condition financially than any
of the other Southern states as there had been very
few invading troops on her soil and her citizens who
were not in the army could continue to raise cotton
and other necessities. Her population had been
greatly increased by the number of people who went
there as refugees from the other devastated states but
this prosperous condition was to be the cause of her
suffering equally if not more so from the "carpet-
baggers" and thieves who went there as it was a land
"flowing with milk and honey." "They did not send
anyone to see but came themselves, and their name
was legion."

Texas passed through the same sufferings of re-
construction but she more readily recovered from it
for in being annexed to the United States she re-
served her public domain and a large portion of this

245

246 AUTHENTIC HISTORY

was set apart for the maintenance of free schools and
she more quickly begun to educate her children, both
black and white after the war. The white people of
Texas believed that the best remedy which might flow
from universal suffrage was universal education,
and with this in mind they thought it proper to give
the negroes the advantage of a common school educa-
tion as it would assist them to discharge the duties
devolving upon them as American citizens. There
was always a pleasant relationship between the
negroes and whites of Texas and only in a few in-
stances was there any conflict between the races. The
military stationed there during reconstruction com-
mitted many more depredations and outrages than
were committed by either white or black natives.

Governor Throckmorton, who was the Governor of
Texas, at that time, applied to General Sheridan to
send troops to the frontier to protect the people from
the depredations of Indians and General Sheridan
refused because the Governor had declined to pardon
a criminal whom General Sheridan had asked him
to pardon and in reply to his request for soldiers,
General Sheridan said, "that he believed him to be
an impediment to the reconstruction of Texas under
the law," and further said: "There were more cas-
ualties occurring from outrages perpetrated upon
Union men and f reedmen in the interior of this state
than occurs from Indian depredations upon the fron-
tier." Governor Throckmorton replied to this state-
ment made by General Sheridan, and said: "General,
this is truly a shocking statement, and I exceedingly

KU KLUX KLAJf, 1865-1877 247

regret that you have been so unfavorably impressed
with the general character of the people of Texas,
and that your information should be so incorrect.
I am ' frank to admit that many violations of law
occur in the interior of Texas; but that these things
are the result of rebellious sentiment among the peo-
ple, or that the outrages committed in consequence
of this rebellious feeling are far in excess of the In-
dian depredations upon the frontier, I must solemnly
and emphatically deny. You have heard one side of
the story. Perhaps if the people or authorities of
Texas had been as persistent and mendacious in their
version of these affairs to you and your officers, as
have been the howling crowd of canting, lying
scamps, who were doing everything in their power to
make trouble and produce alienation of feeling be-
tween countrymen, you might not think so badly of
us. I most positively assert that, of all the outrages
occurring in Texas since the surrender, but the few-
est possible number have originated out of the feeling
alluded to by you."

This was a flat contradiction of the statement that
General Sheridan had made, and it possibly irritated
him, but this was not all. Governor Throckmorton,
in replying to the charge made by General Sheridan,
that the people of Texas had perpetrated such nu-
merous outrages upon Union men and freedmen, saw
fit to call the General's attention to the fact that
much crime in Texas had been perpetrated by Fed-
eral soldiers in his command. For in another place
in his letter he said: " Suffer me to say that, of the

248 AUTHENTIC HISTORY

robberies committed upon freedmen in Texas, a great
number of them have been by soldiers in his
command, and others who have been discharged or
deserted from it. It is undoubtedly true that the
negroes in the localities of the troops are more afraid
of imposition from the soldiers than from any other
quarter. Many of the outrages that have occurred
in Texas have been perpetrated by deserters and dis-
charged soldiers from the Army of the United States.
A band of 17 or 18 in one body went to general
robbing, and are now in the state penitentiary. An-
other band of deserters from the Sixth Cavalry went
directly north through the state from Waco and com-
mitted every species of outrage. Other squads who
were discharged, traveled through the state on their
way North, sometimes representing a Quartermaster
and Commissary and giving receipts, and in other
places taking by force."

This probably was, in the opinion of General Sheri-
dan, what made Throckmorton an impediment to re-
construction and caused him to remove the Governor
from office and led Throckmorton to issue an address
to the people of Texas in which he said he had not
been an impediment to reconstruction but to despotic
powers.

As Charles Stewart says in the reconstruction of
Texas: "Many of our citizens suffered in person and
in property at the hands of licentious and irrespon-
sible men who wore the uniform and marched under
the flag of the United States. One of the most fla-
grant acts of this character was the burning of the

KU KLUX KLANT, 1865-1877 249

town of Brenham, on the night of the 7th of Sep-
tember A. D., 1866. It excited great indignation
throughout the state. The legislature was in session
at the time, and the governor very properly and
prudently called their attention to the matter.

"In compliance with the recommendation of the
governor the legislature sent a committee to Brenham
fully authorized to obtain the facts, and from the
report made by said committee we learn that on the
night of the 7th of September, 1866, a party of
United States soldiers took possession of a negro ball
that was in progress in the house of a negro man in
the town of Brenham. The conduct of the soldiers
became so indecent as to cause the negroes to aban-
don their festivities and seek their homes. Infuriated
because the ball had ceased, they sought to inflict
vengeance upon some of the negro men who had
helped to close it. They pursued one of them to a
house where were assembled a number of white ladies
and gentlemen and within their hearing, in the most
profane and obscene language, abused the negro.
Upon being informed by one of the gentlemen that
ladies were present, and requested not to use im-
proper language, they drew their pistols and trans-
ferred their abuse from the negroes to the white men,
and cursed them as rebels, and threatened to shoot
them, when two of the soldiers were shot, one being
seriously and the other slightly wounded. The sol-
diers then retired to their camp taking their wounded
companion with them, but during the night they re-
turned and fired the town. It was indisputably

250 AUTHENTIC HISTORY

proved that the soldiers set fire to the town. The
evidence showed that the soldiers who committed this
outrage acted under the orders of their commanding
officer, or that he connived at their conduct. When
an officer of the state went to their camp with the
authority of the law, to arrest some of the guilty-
parties, he was informed by the officer in command
that the soldiers he wanted had the night before de-
serted. They certainly had been spirited away and
have never been tried for their crime. Quite a num-
ber of houses were consumed and property to the
value of $131,000 was destroyed. The loss was sus-
tained and divided among about 25 persons, all of
whom were of moderate means and not able to sustain
it. The United States has never paid one dollar of
this loss. The burning of Brenham was exceptional
only in the amount of property that was destroyed;
certainly not in perfidy and wickedness. Numbers
of our citizens were murdered by soldiers of the
United States, and, in some instances, were deliber-
ately shot down by them in the presence of their wives
and children."

A witness before the Reconstruction Committee at
Washington in 1866, Mr. John T. Allen, when asked
about the condition of the negro in Texas said:
"Some of them in towns can read and a few of them
can write; some of them are quite intelligent, espe-
cially those who have been mechanics and have
worked alongside of white men for a great many
years; they have acquired the same knowledge as far
as the ordinary affairs of life are concerned as the

KU KLUX KLAN, 1865-1877 251

white man, and it is an everyday occurrence to hear
intelligent negroes consulted by white men on the
plantation, in the work shop and on the stock farms in
regard to the work and management of their respec-
tive affairs." This description of the condition of the
negro in Texas holds good throughout all the slave-
holding states. Many of their masters had them
taught trades — shoemaking, blacksmithing, carpen-
tering and bricklaying. Besides millions were
trained farmers, and the women of this race were
the best domestic servants the world has ever known.
They were also taught sewing, spinning, knitting, the
care of children and for their faithfulness in the dis-
charge of this last work taught them, they are known
as "Black Mammy," and the white children of the
south reverence and love them, and they are still
enshrined in the hearts of the South. Many instances
of the fidelity of the black mammy during the dread-
ful war period and reconstruction are told to the
children of today. There was one instance when a
Federal regiment took a small boy away from his
home to force him to betray where his brothers, who
were Confederate soldiers, were at that time, as they
were home on a furlough. When the officer took him
on his horse and told him he would hang him if he
didn't tell him where they were, the boy, ten years old,
refused to open his mouth and his "Black Mammy"
crazed with grief over the plight of her boy filled her
apron with corn cobs and threw them at the regiment.
This occurred near Athens, Alabama, when Thomas
N. McClellan, son of Colonel Thomas Joyce McClel-

252 AUTHENTIC HISTORY

Ian, was carried ten miles away from his home by these
Federal soldiers and kept for several days, they trying
all the while to make him say where his brothers were.
He would not open his mouth and one of the younger
officers in this command, having a boy of that age at
his own home, told the commander of this regiment
that he would resign if he did not let the boy go home,
and there was great rejoicing when he came back and
I feel that his mother was no more rejoiced to have
him than was his "Black Mammy" Lucy. This boy
became Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Ala-
bama ; after having become distinguished he received a
letter from the young Federal officer who interceded
for his life in which he said he had never seen such
magnificent control as he showed as a child.

From an economic standpoint, and, in justice to
the negro race, which has no better friend than I,
I ask the reader to remember that the South in 1861
was the richest part of this country and that these
riches were based on slave labor, and that the negroes
were not the helpless and shiftless race that the next
generation became directly after the Civil War while
they were being supported by the government, for
none of the older and well trained negroes would ac-
cept this help, but went on working as best they could
under the conditions which were brought about in
the South by the reconstruction and the Spurious Ku
Klux Klan which was formed in Washington to go
South for the purpose of creating a disturbance be-
tween the races. There were not so many negroes in
Texas at that time and that question did not trouble

KU KLUX KLAN, 1865-1877 253

the people so much there as where they outnumbered
the whites ten to one as in the cotton raising states
of the Old South.

When General George A. Custer was asked how
many loyal men there were in Texas, he said: "It
would be hard to find a man who had been strictly
faithful to the Union. They forced all the Union
men to leave the state and that I did not consider it
safe for a loyal man to stay in Texas."

When he was asked the question: "Suppose the
general government should become involved in a war
with France or England, if he thought the people of
Texas would fight against the United States flag,'*
he answered: "I think that the most sensible and
those inclined to be loyal would fight for the flag."

"Do you think any outspoken Union man could be
elected to Congress in Texas," he was asked.

He answered: "I do not think any man but one
who had borne a prominent part in the Confederate
States Army or was in opposition to the Federal
Government could be elected. Certainly no 'loyal*
man could."

The people of Texas remembered the period of
reconstruction with more bitterness than the years
of the Civil War.

In 1869 a radical governor was elected and he so
mismanaged the affairs that he and his associates
brought on irretrievable ruin to the Republican party.

The democrats held a convention in Corsicana and
arraigned the radical administration as they had done
in their former platform in 1871.

254 AUTHENTIC HISTORY

This convention declared the "national administra-
tion to be destructive of the rights of the states and of
the liberties of the people."

When this radical governor was "reelected" ille-
gally he applied to President Grant for troops to as-
sist him in being inaugurated. This radical governor
filled the Capital of Texas with troops, most of
them negroes, the night before he expected to be in-
augurated, but the Democrats took possession of
the legislative halls during the night. He again ap-
pealed to the President for military aid and through
the Attorney General he replied: "The President is
of the opinion your right to the office of governor is at
least so doubtful that he does not feel warranted in
furnishing United States troops."

The radical governor then left the capital and
radical misrule was at an end and this was accom-
plished by the Ku Klux Klan under Colonel Roger
Q. Mills and other great Texans. Colonel Mills gave
me this fact about the Ku Klux Klan.

XVII.

MISSOURI.

In 1861 Missouri was opposed to the Secession of
the States, and sought earnestly to occupy a posi-
tion of neutrality; a large portion of her inhabi-
tants were southern in their origin and for this reason
this State was under suspicion by the United States
government and at the beginning of the War be-
tween the States was promptly occupied by the
troops of the United States. At the time there were
two bodies of troops in the State — Militia or State
Guard of Missouri, which was made up of one bri-
gade from each Congressional District, and by an
order of the Legislature was placed under the com-
mand of Major-General Sterling Price, and the
United States Troops under General Harney, who
was commanding the Department of the West which
included the State of Missouri. General Price was
a Union man. He had served in the Mexican War,
had been Governor of Missouri, and was a born
commander of men, and was qualified to discharge
this responsible position. The law required an an-
nual encampment of the Militia and in 1861 the place
selected for it was about half a mile from the city of
St. Louis, between Olive and Laclede Avenues,
known as LindeH's Grove. In May, 1861, several

255

256 AUTHENTIC HISTORY

companies of Militia numbering 636 men and 50
officers commanded by General D. M. Frost, went
into camp and named it "Camp Jackson" for Gov-
ernor Claiborne E. Jackson, the Governor of the
State. No sentinels were set to guard against sur-
prises at this camp, which showed there was no hos-
tility toward the United States government con-
templated.

General Harney was absent from St. Louis and
Captain Nathaniel Lyon of the United States Army
was in charge of the Union Troops in St. Louis.
Captain Lyon was a New England man and hated
the South and Southern institutions, and believed
in coercion. Captain Lyon had the impressoin that
the Militia of the State intended to attack his men
and get possession of the arsenal, which was al-
together false, but he wrote the War Department
at Washington asking to increase his forces by en-
listing troops from the solid German population in
one portion of St. Louis. President Lincoln gave
him permission to raise ten regiments and by May
10, 1861, he had raised seven regiments and he had
drilled them secretly without causing any alarm. He
had two regiments of Regular United States soldiers.
General Frost heard that Captain Lyon was making
preparations to attack Camp Jackson. General
Frost addressed a communication to Captain Lyon
stating that he had no intention of attacking the
arsenal or the United States troops, and that he was
only at Camp Jackson under the Constitution of the
State to drill and train the Militia ; and that no flag

KU KLUX KLAN, 1865-1877 257

but the stars and stripes, and the coat of arms of the
State had ever floated over this camp, and that if
necessary he would offer the whole power of the State
to protect the United States in the possession of the
arsenal and other Government property. Captain
Lyon would not accept this letter as sincere on the
part of General Frost and answered: "Your com-
mand is regarded as hostile toward the Government
of the United States. It is made up of secessionists,
is in correspondence with the Confederacy, and is
acting under the orders of the Governor of Missouri
who is a Rebel. I therefore demand an immediate
surrender of your command and dispersion of your
troops."

The three hundred thousand people of the city had
no knowledge of the condition of the military affairs,
but were plying their vocations when suddenly on the
10th of May, Lyon put his army in motion. They
marched in platoons, reaching from curb to curb, up
the principal streets toward Olive Street. The ap-
pearance of this formidable army naturally created
great excitement, and people left their business; and
men, women and children followed the troops, the
number increasing as they went. This was just as
the schools of St. Louis were being dismissed for the
day, and the children joined in the procession, and
though unalarmed followed to LindeH's Grove where
Camp Jackson was situated. Captain Lyon imme-
diately surrounded it and demanded its surrender.
General Frost protested against this unlawful pro-
cedure, but made no resistance and surrendered, as it

258 AUTHENTIC HISTORY

was inevitable. After the State Troops had surren-
dered and been disarmed, Captain Lyon ordered his
troops to open fire on the spectators, killing and
wounding many of them.

There have been various versions given of this in-
cident. General Frost in his report says : "After we
were disarmed and had surrendered a fire was opened
on a portion of us by Lyon's troops, and a number
of men put to death; together with several innocent
lookers-on."

Captain Lyon in his report to Col. L. Thomas,
Adjutant-General at Washington, says: "My com-
mand on returning to their station were fired upon
by a mob which fire was returned by the troops, from
which, all told, on both sides, about twelve persons
were killed, two of whom were United States
troops."

It is stated by P. S. Sanderson, an army clerk, that
after being fired upon Captain Blondowsky ordered
the United States Troops to fire upon the crowd.

However the incident was brought about it had
great bearing on the future course of the State of
Missouri in regard to the War between the States.
It is stated as a fact that these troops who fired on
the crowd of innocent people were for the most part
Germans, speaking a different language, who were
employed by the Government to serve with Lyon's
forces and who had only a crude conception of the
issues at stake and therefore were unrestrained from
deeds of lawlessness and violence.

A lad from the group of boys in a spirit of bravado

KU KLUX KLAN, 1865-1877 259

or boyish sport threw a clod of dirt at a mounted
German officer and struck him on the leg. This
officer drew his sword and gave the signal to fire.
The helpless citizens ran to the other side of the
square for protection and were fired upon from that
direction. During the firing upon these innocent
victims a woman was killed with a baby in her arms
and a young girl was shot to death.

Captain Lyon then took all the troops through the
city as prisoners of war to the arsenal where they
were kept until paroled by General Harney.

One of the greatest blunders committed by the
United States was the taking of Camp Jackson and
it could have been avoided had the Union leaders in
St. Louis listened to the counsel of conservative men
such as Harney and Price. But Lyon was preju-
diced and there were Radical politicians at Wash-
ington who were urging him on to this great wrong
to Missouri.

Indignation spread rapidly over Missouri and in-
volved her in a war with the general government.
The State was cut off from supplies of arms and am-
munition and there was thrown into her defenseless
boundaries an organized army of ten thousand
troops, and all the hard-fought battles and all the
outrages perpetrated by both Northern and Southern
parties in Missouri during the war and immediately
after, may be traced to this deplorable affair, as it
set a precedent to the Union soldiers to disregard
personal rights which menaced the personal safety
of all Southern men. It took from Missouri all

260 AUTHENTIC HISTORY

civil protection, it stimulated oppression on the one
side and provoked retaliation and revenge on the
other. Missouri's only hope was to stand upon her
constitutional rights which were denied her.

The tragedy of taking Camp Jackson inflamed
the minds of the people throughout the State and
they openly advocated war. Governor Claiborne
Jackson issued a proclamation on June 12, 1861, cal-
ling for fifty thousand volunteers to defend the State
against this invasion. After the proclamation Gen-
eral Lyon began to move his army toward the capitol
of the State, taking one regiment of regular United
States troops, Col. Frank P. Blair's volunteers, and
Lieutenant Totten's battery, by steamboats. Other
troops under Col. Franz Sigel went by rail. They
reached Jefferson City the next day and took pos-
session of the town without resistance as the Gover-
nor and State officials had left the capitol city. Lyon
went on up the Missouri River and landed a few
miles below Boonville where he met with stubborn
resistance from the citizens, but who were without
artillery and not being able to withstand Totten's
battery, retreated.

General S. G. Sturgis of the Federal Army came
from Leavenworth, Kansas, to Springfield, Missouri,
and joined the Lyon forces on July 31st.

General Sterling Price was rapidly recruiting an
army of State Troops in the meantime near the Ar-
kansas border, he was there joined by Gen. Benja-
min McColloch's command of Arkansas and Texas
troops and one Louisiana regiment under Col. Lewis

KU KLUX KLAN, 1865-1877 261

Hebert, called the "Pelican Rifles." The two armies
were well matched in numbers but the Federal troops
were well armed while a number of mounted men
under Price were without arms of any kind. The
battle of Wilson's Creek was fought eight miles from
Springfield on August 10, 1861, and lasted seven
hours and was one of the bloodiest and hardest-
fought struggles during the entire war. Most of the
Southern men had never been drilled while those of
the Federal troops were well equipped and trained,
having served in the United States Army. General
Sigel's men were German volunteers and had served
in their country. However, General Sterling Price
was a veteran of the Mexican War, and General
McColloch was a Texan veteran who had helped to
avenge the butchery of the heroes of the Alamo at
San Jacinto. The attack was quite a surprise to
their army when Totten's battery opened fire from a
hill overlooking their camp which is now known as
"Bloody Hill." The fighting was at close range and
it was a fatal day for Captain Lyon and his command
when he brought his lines within easy range of the
double-barreled shotguns of the Southern frontiers-
men. The Union army was completely routed, and
just three months from the day Camp Jackson was
taken by Lyon's army, he was completely beaten
and himself slain while rallying for one more charge.
Then the battle suddenly ended and the victory of
Wilson's Creek was emblazoned on the arms of the
Confederates.

In St. Louis a convention was called arbitrarily

262 AUTHENTIC HISTORY

and the offices of Governor and Secretary of State
were declared vacant, and a Mr. Gamble was ap-
pointed Governor. The State had yet passed no act
or form of secession, but the army had assumed com-
mon cause with the seceding States, and on Nov.
2, Governor Jackson called a meeting of the Leg-
islature at Neosho, and they passed an act ratifying
an agreement made between the State and the Com-
missioners of the Confederate Government by which
Missouri was to become a member of the Confeder-
acy, and they elected George G. Vest and John B.
Clark, Sr., to the Confederate Congress at Rich-
mond. "Citizens who had been enjoying life-long
freedom dwelling in the full liberty of their peaceful
and quiet homes, faring sumptuously on the rich pro-
ducts of a virgin soil, which their industry had
reclaimed from its native state, and under a govern-
ment which they regarded as the best in the world,
little dreamed of the trying ordeal through which
they were so soon to pass — disfranchisement, the in-
vasion of the sacred precincts of homes by military
searches, confiscation of property, exposure to indig-
nities, prison and banishment — and for what offense?
Divested of fanaticism and passion, the impartial
historian will answer: "Because he advocated and de-
fended the sublime principles of State sovereignty."

Missouri bore a conspicuous part in the War be-
tween the States by those who were enlisted in the
Southern cause.

In the Confederate States of America, Second
Congress, first session, the following joint resolution

KU KLUX KLAJNT, 1865-1877 263

of thanks to Missouri officers and soldiers in the Con-
federate service, was adopted and approved May
23, 1864:

"Resolved: By the Congress of the Confederate
States of America, That the thanks of Congress are
eminently due and are hereby tendered to Brigadier-
General F. M. Cockrill and the officers and soldiers
composing 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, and 6th Regiments
of Missouri Infantry; 1st, 2nd and 3rd Regiments of
Missouri Cavalry; the batteries of Bledsoe, Landis,
Guibor, Walsh, Dawson, and Barrett; and Wood-
son's detached Company, all in the service of the
Confederacy east of the Mississippi River, for the
prompt renewal of their pledges of fidelity to the
cause of Southern independence for 40 years unless
independence and peace, without curtailment of
boundaries, shall be sooner secured."

In the year of 1864, on February 13, the era of
"reconstruction" began in Missouri. By an act of the
general assembly there was a convention provided to
amend the state constitution and it went into effect,
it was known as the Drake convention because one of
its members, Charles D. Drake "was the controlling
spirit and absolutely dominated his timid and inferior
colleagues." The third section of the instrument
which the convention adopted, was as follows :

"At any election held by the people under this con-
stitution, or in pursuance of any law of this state, or
any ordinance or by-law of any municipal corpora-

264 AUTHENTIC HISTORY

tion, no person shall be deemed a qualified voter, who
has ever been in armed hostility to the United States,
or to the lawful authorities thereof, or to the govern-
ment of this state; or has ever given aid, comfort,
countenance or support to persons engaged in any
such hostility; or has ever, in any manner, adhered
to the enemies, foreign or domestic, of the United
States, either by contributing to them or by unlaw-
fully sending within their lines money, goods, letters
or information; or has ever disloyally held communi-
cation with such enemies ; or has ever advised or aided
any person to enter the service of such enemies; or
has ever, by act or word, manifested his adherence to
the cause of such enemies, or his desire for their
triumph over the arms of the United States, or his
sympathy with those engaged in exciting or carrying
on rebellion against the United States; or has ever,
except under overpowering compulsion submitted to
the authority, or have been in the service of the so-
called (Confederate States of America) ; or has ever
left the state and gone within the lines of the armies
of the so-called (Confederate States of America),
with the purpose of cohering to said states or armies ;
or has ever been a member of, or connected with, any
order, society or organization inimicable to the gov-
ernment of the United States, or to the government
of the state, or has ever been engaged in guerilla war-
fare against the loyal inhabitants of the United
States, or in that description of maurauding com-
monly known as bush-whacking, or has ever know-
ingly and willingly harbored, aided, or countenanced

KU KLUX KLAN, 1865-1877 265

any person so engaged ; or has ever come into or has
left this state for the purpose of avoiding enrollment
for or draft into the military service of the United
States, or has ever, with a view to avoid enrollment
into the militia of this state, or to escape the perform-
ance of duty therein, or for any other purpose, en-
rolled himself or authorized himself to be enrolled, by
or before any officers as disloyal, or as a southern
sympathizer, or in any other terms indicating his dis-
affection to the government of the United States in
its contest with rebellion, or his sympathy with those
engaged in such rebellion, or having ever voted at any
election by the people in this state, or in any other
of the United States, or in any of their territories,
or under the United States shall thereafter have
sought or received under claim of alienage, the pro-
tection of any foreign government, through any
counsel or other officer thereof, in order to secure
exemption from military duty in the militia of this
state, or in the army of the United States ; nor shall
any such person be capable of holding in this state,
any office of honor, trust, or profit under its
authority; or by being an officer, counsellor, director,
trustee, or other manager of any corporation, public
or private, now existing, or hereafter established by
its authority; or of acting as a professor or teacher
in any educational institution, or in any common or
other school; or of holding any real estate, or other
property in trust for the use of any churches, re-
ligious societies or congregations. But the foregoing
provisions in relation to acts done against the United

266 AUTHENTIC HISTORY

States shall not apply to any person not a citizen
thereof, or who shall have committed such acts while
in the service of some foreign country at war with the
United States, and who has, since such acts been
naturalized, or may hereafter be naturalized, under
the laws of the United States ; and the oath of loyalty
hereinafter prescribed when taken by any such person
shall be considered as taken in such sense."

The constitution also provided that the general
assembly should enact laws for the registration of
voters, and that no one should be allowed to register
or vote until he had taken an oath in accordance with
the section above mentioned, but that the taking of
such oath was not conclusive as to loyalty, but might
be negatived by other evidence, the registry officers
being the only judges.

The ninth section provided that no person shall
practice law, or be competent as a bishop, priest,
deacon, minister, elder, or other clergyman of any
religious persuasion, sect or denomination, to teach,
or preach, or solemnize marriages, unless such person
shall have first taken, subscribed, and filed the expur-
gatorial oath required as to voters by the third section.

Under these provisions the parent who had given a
piece of bread or cup of water to a son in the service
of the Confederate states, or who had in any way
expressed sympathy for such son was prohibited from
registering as a voter, or serving as a juror, or teach-
ing in any school, or preaching the Gospel, or solemn-
izing any religious rite. A more inhuman, atrocious,

KU KLUX KLA^J, 1865-1877 267

and barbarous instrument than this constitution was
never invented.

Of course, the constitution was declared adopted,
but with all the means that could be invented by
partisan malevolence.

So monstrous was the outrage, that many leaders
of the Union party denounced the constitution and
refused to take the oath prescribed.

On January 14, 1867, the case of Father John A.
Cummings, a Roman Catholic priest, who had been
indicted and convicted for administering the rites of
his church without first taking the oath prescribed by
the Drake constitution, came before the Supreme
Court of the United States, the state of Missouri
being defendant in error. It was held by Justice
Field, delivering the opinion, that the Missouri test-
oath, as it was termed, was in violation of those pro-
visions of the Federal Constitution which prohibits
any state from enacting a bill of attainder, or ex post
facto law, and was therefore null and void.

Corrupt politicians of the republican party con-
trolling the vote of paupers and vagabonds (the
Drake Constitution having excluded from the ballot
box most of the property holders from the state ) , is-
sued without the knowledge and without the consent
of the people more than $15,000,000 in county and
municipal bonds for the supposed purpose of build-
ing railroads which never existed except in the minds
of the speculating politicians. The principal and in-
terest of these bonds to be paid by the tax-payers.
In vain did the plundered people appeal to the courts.

268 AUTHENTIC HISTORY

It is hoped that never again will be witnessed upon
this continent the reign of fraud and outrage to which
the people of Missouri were subjected during these
years of republican supremacy. Reconstruction in
Missouri cost the taxpayers of the state heavily.

The dishonest financial management of Missouri
will stand as a monument of the reconstruction period
in that state. In 1872 the democrats regained their
control of the state and by strict economy and honesty
with the moneys of Missouri they were enabled to
pay these unjust war debts and to increase the value
of their bonds. It is to be hoped that no state will
ever have to pay fraudulent debts from which they
cannot escape, as Missouri did growing out of the
reconstruction.

The Ku Klux Klan was organized in Missouri in
1868 and was one of the leading factors in the re-
demption of the state. I knew personally the gallant
soldier and stainless southern gentleman, Captain
Clarke Kennedy, who was Grand Dragon of the
Realm of Missouri of the "Invisible Empire," and
who gave me this information. He was a valiant
soldier in the Mexican war and marched with his com-
mand from Missouri to the City of Mexico, and was a
Confederate soldier.

..^li

.JIMi

This lap desk of rosewood was presented to Mrs. William H.
Wallace by her former slave, John Wallace, who was a negro
member of the Radical Legislature of South Carolina in 1874, as
a token of his devotion to his "Ole Missis" and it is now treasured
for this reason by her granddaughter, Margaret Gage (Mrs.
Morris W. Bush), Birmingham, Ala.

XVIII.
ARKANSAS.

The facts of Reconstruction in Arkansas were
stated by W. M. Fishback as follows :

"To obtain a clear appreciation of the state of
things in Arkansas during reconstruction it will be
necessary to show how the 'carpet-bag' government
was put upon our people by Congress ; also the sort of
government it was. It is well known that the South-
ern people had returned from the Civil War utterly
impoverished. Nothing was left for the support of
themselves and their families except their own cour-
age and manhood. The people trusting implicitly
upon the good faith of Congress pursued their labors
feeling assured that nothing damaging to their in-
terests would be consummated without their consent.

The constitutional convention met and formulated
a constitution which was so unrepublican in its sched-
ule that the people did not dream Congress would
approve it and accordingly not half of them voted
upon its ratification. This constitution gave to three
men, James L. Hodges, Joseph Brooks and Thomas
M. Bowen, such absolute control of the election of
state and county officials under it that they could
elect or defeat whom they wished.

269

270 AUTHENTIC HISTORY

They were given power to select such judges and
clerks of election as they saw fit. They were given
power to reject or count all votes which seemed to
them legal or illegal, fraudulent or rightful. Section
eleven of this constitution gave these election judges
the right to allow any vote with which they might be
satisfied

The "carpet-bag" politicians elected under this
constitution knew there was likely to be trouble as
soon as the people should find out how they had been
betrayed and how wantonly they were to be plun-
dered of every sacred right of the citizen.

Although General C. H. Smith, U. S. A., com-
manding the District of Arkansas, wrote his superior
officer that there was no state of facts existing in
Arkansas to warrant such a step, the governor upon
the flimsiest pretext declared martial law in many of
the counties in the state. Negro militia marched and
maurauded and murdered at will through these
counties.

The legislature passed at this time an amnesty act
forbidding the punishment of any of the murders or
outrages committed by this negro militia. It pro-
tected a multitude of wanton crimes.

In the face of these outrages what was there then
about the republican party as our people know it to
commend it to self-respecting, patriotic men of the
South? Surely, after reading these facts it will not
be hard for our fair-thinking fellow citizens of the
North to account for the solidity of the south and the

KU KLUX KLAN, 1865-1877 271

organization of the Ku Klux Klan in Arkansas, which
was led by

GENERAL ALBERT PIKE.

General Albert Pike was born in Boston, Massa-
chusetts, December 29, 1809. When he was four years
old his parents removed to Newburyport in the same
State, where young Pike grew to manhood, getting
the usual education of the times in the common schools,
supplemented by a few terms at a private school in
the same town and at the academy in Framingham.
He began to teach school at the age of fifteen and
when sixteen passed an examination for and entered
the freshman class at Harvard. Owing to straitened
circumstances he paid for his board and tuition by
teaching during the fall and winter at Gloucester.
He fitted himself while teaching to enter the Junior
class in the fall of 1826 and passed the necessary
examination, but owing to a misunderstanding with
the faculty regarding his tuition fees he returned
home and educated himself, going through the pre-
scribed course of studies for the junior and senior
years while teaching. He taught in Fairhaven and
afterward as assistant and principal in the grammar
school at Newburyport and then for several years in
a private school in the latter town, until March, 1831.

In the spring of 1831 he started for the West,
walking much of the way, and for the next few years
traveled, explored, traded and lived among the In-

272 AUTHENTIC HISTORY

dians, learning their language and customs, and by
his honest and straight-forward association with
them, gained a confidence which thirty years after-
wards, during the great Civil War, made him so
useful and powerful among them in the cause of the
Confederacy which he espoused, and later in the
prosecution of claims against the U. S. Government
in their behalf. General Pike commanded a regiment
and afterward a brigade of Indian troops, C. S. A.

He settled in Little Rock in 1833 and it was there
that he became editor of the Arkansas Gazette, studied
law and wrote for some of the magazines. His series
of poems entitled "Hymns to the Gods," which were
written earlier, some of them while surrounded by
pupils in the classroom, he sent to the editor of
Blackwood's Magazine, Edinburgh, Scotland, John
Wilson, who published them about 1838, pronounc-
ing him "The coming poet of America" and remark-
ing that "These fine hymns entitle their author to
take his place in the highest order of his country's
poets" and that "His massive genius marks him to be
the poet of the Titans," but his poem "Every Year"
is called his masterpiece.

General Pike was a Captain of Cavalry in the Mexi-
can War where he served with distinction, participat-
ing in the battle of Buena Vista and afterwards riding
a distance of five hundred miles, from Saltillo to Chia-
huahua, through a country swarming with the fugi-
tive soldiers from Santa Anna's defeated armies.,
with only forty-one men of his command, receiving
the surrender of the city of Mapini on the way.

KU KLUX KLAN, 1865-1877 273

About 1851 he transferred the practice of law
from Little Rock to New Orleans, practicing also be-
fore the Supreme Court of the United States, return-
ing in 1857 to Little Rock where he remained until
the outbreak of the Civil War, when he served as
commissioner for negotiating treaties with the In-
dians and as Brigadier General in the Confederate
States Army.

After the War between the States he resided in
Memphis, Tennessee, for several years, moving to
Washington about 1869, where he resided for the re-
mainder of his life. His death occurred on April 2,
1891, in the eighty-second year of his age.

He joined Free Masonry in 1850 and in less than
nine years became the highest ranking officer in this
institution, becoming Grand Commander of the Su-
preme Council of the 33rd Degree for the Southern
Jurisdiction of the United States, which is the
"Mother Supreme Council of the World" and was
founded at Charleston, South Carolina, May 31,
1801, and which office he occupied from 1859 until his
death in 1891. General Pike became universally
known throughout the masonic world by reason of
his activities in promoting the growth of this branch
of Free Masonry and it was his genius that evolved
the modern rituals of this masonic rite out of the older
rituals in use in earlier times.

As a lawyer he was one of the foremost jurists of
his day. As a scholar, philosopher, poet and master
of languages he ranked with the most eminent, and
as a soldier and statesman his ability was unques-

274 AUTHENTIC HISTORY

tioned. He has been called the "Homer of America"
and "The Zoroaster of modern Asia." It was when
he was sixty-five years old that he began the study
of the Sanscrit language and after mastering this
ancient and now obsolete tongue was fourteen years
translating the Vedas and other sacred books of the
East. Besides poetry and his numerous masonic
writings, he wrote on law, politics, philosophy, mili-
tary science and general literature. His manuscript
writings total in round numbers 36,000 pages and his
printed writings total about 25,000 pages. Practi-
cally all of his works are to be found in the Library
of the Supreme Council at Washington.

It is an interesting fact and significant of the man
that he never published any book for sale. With the
exception of his legal briefs, whatever he had printed
was done at his own expense for private circulation
or was donated to the Supreme Council of the 33rd
Degree over which he presided for so many years.
His versatile mind, genius, and tremendous energy
are best illustrated by a perusal of the bibliography
of his writings which is in print.

On his death-bed he took up an old-fashioned pen-
cil and calling for a slip of paper wrote this now
famous thought:

"Shalom! — Peace — that comes with blessing to
care-fretted weary men, when Death's dreamless
sleep ends all suffering and sorrow."

James D. Richardson, 33rd Degree (Tennessee)
said in his address at the dedication of the Memorial
to General Pike, the magnificent Temple of the

KU KLUX KLAN, 1865-1877 275

Supreme Council on 16th Street, Washington, D. C.
"When he closed his eyes in death the greatest light
that ever shone in Free Masonry, in any land, went
out. Scottish Masons everywhere, no matter what
language they spoke, knew him and bore testimony
to their reverence and admiration for him. The
Grand Bodies of the Rite in many other lands de-
lighted to honor him; in addition to the high honors
bestowed upon him by the Mother Supreme Council
of the World he was Honorary Grand Commander
of the Supreme Councils of Brazil (United), Egypt
and Tunis ; Honorary Member of the Supreme Coun-
cils for the Northern Jurisdiction of the United
States, France, Belgium, Italy at Torino, Spain,
England and Wales, Ireland, Scotland, Greece,
Hungary, Nueva Granada, Canada, Colon, Peru,
Mexico and Uruguay."

For the foregoing biography of General Pike, I
am greatly indebted to Wm. L. Boyden, 33rd De-
gree, Librarian of The Temple of the Supreme
Council of the 33rd and Last Degree of the Ancient
and Accepted Scottish Rite of Free Masonry of the
Southern Jurisdiction of the United States of Amer-
ica, Washington, D. C.

Part of a set of chess men was taken from the
mountain home of Albert Pike when it was raided
by a detachment of the Second Kansas, U. S. A.
Cavalry, who were camped near Little Rock, Ark.,
in the summer of 1863. When they returned to
camp they distributed their booty and these chess
men fell to the lot of Capt. E. S. Stover of Co. B.

276 AUTHENTIC HISTORY

Soon after the war he moved to New Mexico and
became Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Scot-
tish Rite Masons there.

In 1915, after so many years, and when he was then
over 80 years of age (though now dead) he returned
them to be placed among the relics of General Pike
in the Library of the SUPREME COUNCIL.

These old-fashioned chess men were like the ones
in my home with which General Forrest played a
"make believe" game with me when I was a little girl.

General Albert Pike had a most remarkable
memory, and one of his greatest feats in this line
was reproducing entirely from memory the Scottish
Rite Ritual, all copies of it having been destroyed
by fire in Charleston, S. C, when it was burned by
the Federals during the Civil War.

General Pike organized the Ku Klux Klan in
Arkansas after General Forrest appointed him Grand
Dragon of that Realm at the convention at Nashville,
Tenn. He was also appointed at that time Chief
Judicial Officer of The Invisible Empire. He advised
in this capacity that the Ku Klux Klan memorize their
Ritual and to never make it public.

I have made diligent effort to obtain a written
Ritual and have requested hundreds of the original
Klan to recite this for me and they have always said
that this one secret would never be revealed.

General Pike appointed Mr. Henry Fielding and
Mr. Eppie Fielding of Fayetteville, Arkansas, to
assist him in organizing Dens in that state. They
were members of the Athens, Ala., Klan from its be-

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THE WALLACE
HOUSE

Organized November
28, 1876

which redeemed South Carolina from "Carpet Bag" and "Negro
Rule." Speaker Wallace in Center.

(See page 215 for other names

(Contributed by Mrs. Margaret Wallace Gage,
daughter of General Wallace, Birmingham, Ala.)

KU KLUX KLAN, 1865-1877 277

ginning and went to Arkansas, to live in 1867. They
were Confederate soldiers, and gave me much in-
formation about the powerful influence General Pike
had over the people of Arkansas during the dark
days of reconstruction.

In 1872 Arkansas had two governments operating
at one time and civil war was threatened and great
excitement prevailed against the Washington Gov-
ernment. General Pike called a mass meeting at
Little Rock, Ark., in the Capitol building and ap-
pealed to the people to be patient until better times
would come and assured them that he would go to
Washington and intercede for them, which he did
many times.

At this meeting General Pike unfurled the Stars
and Stripes and in a most beautiful manner, asked
the people to follow it, which thousands of them did,
promising him to be patient until the Ku Klux Klan
could redeem the state.

XIX.

FLORIDA.

At the time of the reconstruction of Florida the
old party leaders of the anti-bellum days had been
disfranchised and silenced and there was no political
organization in a condition to resist the republican
plan of controlling this and other Southern states by
the negro vote directed and managed by their party
friends who had drifted southward with the Union
army, or that afterwards followed in its wake.

The democrats nominated for their governor
Colonel George W. Scott who had been famous as a
bold cavalry leader during the latter part of the war
and was at the time of the election at the head of a
large mercantile business in Tallahassee. All ma-
chinery of the election was in the hands of the Os-
borne faction of the republican party. It was held
under the ordinance framed by their convention that
the inspectors should continue under the law for
three days to have the custody of the ballot boxes
each night. Ballot boxes were constructed with flat
bottoms for use of the large negro counties and
though the aperture through which the votes were
passed was carefully sealed each evening and the key
was ostensibly entrusted to one who did not have the
control of the box an ingenious slide enabled the

278

KU KLUX KLAN, 1865-1877 279

custodian, in the seclusion of his home, during the
quiet of the night, to mould the majority at his will.
The result of the three days' election was the adop-
tion of the Osborne constitution notwithstanding the
general belief among the supporters of the democrats
that this was not the true result, but they could only
submit to the power of the general government. This
was but one of the few tricks used by the republican
party to gain their ends in holding the political con-
trol over the state of Florida and forcing upon the
citizens of that state their own wanton reconstruction
laws.

Mr. Malachi Martin of Jacksonville, Fla., stated
that during reconstruction in Florida a Mr. McClellan
and his daughter and some other parties were on the
stoop of a hotel, and a Mr. Coker was on the stoop
with others. "I understood that they heard some par-
ties on the street, and that they supposed there was a
colored man there who was a constable, a man of the
name of Calvin Rogers. McClellan said that he
recognized his voice giving the command to fire. The
impression is that they intended to kill Coker, but, by
accident, Miss McClellan was killed and her father
wounded.

This was one of the outrages that was reported
throughout the Northern press, as having been done
by the Ku Klux Klan, and all of the witnesses testi-
fied that they saw the act, and there were no Ku Klux
visible.

Any violent death in any part of the South was

280 AUTHENTIC HISTORY

reported as Ku Klux outrages, regardless of the
facts.

It was said that the radical government had re-
sorted to a rate of taxation under which the people
suffered and every branch of industry was crippled.
These taxes were not determined by the owners but
by a very incompetent body. The election frauds
were a matter of grave concern and depended upon
the skill of a board of canvassers who would count
into office any radicals that they wished.

From the period of 1868 to 1877 was only record
of extravagance and corruption. Crime had gone
unpunished, no schools or public buildings had been
built since before the war, and yet millions of money
had been extorted from the people by these extrava-
gant "carpet-baggers."

Florida had a worse thing to endure during re-
construction than had any of the other states of
the South and that was the presence within her
borders for about ten years of Mrs. Harriet Beecher
Stowe whose libelous novel "Uncle Tom's Cabin"
undoubtedly caused the Civil War. She settled on
a plantation which had been taken away from the
owners by some men from the North and associated
openly and freely with negroes inviting them into her
home on perfect equality, and as she afterwards
stated, she fed many of them expecting them to pay
and found that they were only free boarders. She
lost a great deal of money in her experiment of rais-
ing cotton on free labor. The Ku Klux Klan, even
after they had disbanded in 1877 and were again

KU KLUX KLAJST, 1865-1877 281

ready to go to work for themselves, as many of them
had lost years of their time guarding the women and
children, continued to guard Mrs. Stowe for several
years after that period for she would come and go
between her home in Massachusetts and Florida.

XX.

SOUTH CAROLINA.

Many people of the State, including General
William H. Wallace, had asked General Hampton
to return home and become a candidate for governor
of South Carolina, which he finally consented to do.

The annals of Republican rule in South Carolina
at that time "Is engraven with a pen of iron" upon
the memory of the people of the State, which was
suffering from the worst administered government
that ever asserted authority over a civilized people.

This condition in South Carolina made the
"Struggle of 1876" absolutely inevitable. The dark
cloud which had hung so long over this State began
to be mysteriously and suddenly lifted by the Ku
Klux Klan, and Wade Hampton was elected gover-
nor of South Carolina, but the end of tyranny was
not quite yet, for Governor Chamberlain had been
reelected by the Republicans.

General Hampton said: "The people of South
Carolina have elected me Governor, and by the eter-
nal God, I intend to be their Governor."

He remembered the promise of General Nathan
B. Forrest that the support of the Ku Klux Klan
should be his, and he felt assured that he would be
seated.

282

KU KLUX KLAN, 1865-1877 283

General William H. Wallace was elected to the
Legislature in 1874, and at the same time his former
slave, John Wallace, was elected by the Radicals,
When this Radical government was spending millions
and charging it to the State, this negro man would
not buy anything except a desk which he said he
would like to have to give to his former mistress,
Mrs. William H. Wallace. The desk he purchased
is now owned and prized by one of Mrs. Wallace's
grand-daughters, a patrician beauty, Mrs. Margaret
Gage Bush, and is shown in the picture, furnished
me by her for this book.

General Wallace was reelected to the Legislature
in 1876, and afterwards was made Speaker of what
is known as the "Wallace House."

General John B. Gordon, and General Wade
Hampton went to Washington to intercede with the
President to withdraw the Military from South Caro-
lina and allow Wade Hampton to be seated as gov-
ernor.

General Forrest had requested General Gordon to
ask Captain John C. Lester of the Pulaski Ku Klux
Klan to accompany him to Washington, and author-
ized him to say to President Grant that the strength
of the Ku Klux Klan was greater than it had ever
been and stood ready for any emergency, for the
people of the South had determined to seat the white
legislature and governor.

President Grant did not heed their request and
there was enacted in the State House of South Caro-
lina the most tragic travesty on government ever

284 AUTHENTIC HISTORY

staged in the entire world in any age, known as the
"Dual Government." Two governors claimed the
seat — Chamberlain of the Republican Party, and
Hampton of the Democratic Party. General W. H.
Wallace had been elected Speaker of the Democratic
House, and E. W. M. Mackey was elected Speaker
of the Republican House.

When the time came for the opening of the Gen-
eral Assembly Mr. Mackey came upon the Speaker's
stand accompanied by several persons not members
of either body. The other side of the Speaker's stand
was occupied by William H. Wallace and several
Democrats. Mr. Mackey said to Mr. Wallace:

"Sir, the hour for the beginning of the session of
the House has arrived, and I would be obliged to you
for the Chair."

Mr. Wallace replied:

"The House is already in session and the Speaker
is already in the Chair."

Whereupon somebody brought Mr. Mackey a
chair and the joint session began.

The suddenness of the Democratic movement left
no time for concerted action on the part of the Re-
publicans, and there was no attempt made then to
eject the Democrats by force. Neither did the Demo-
crats make any effort to eject Mackey.

A large body of the regular army of the United
States was quartered in Columbia, in the State
House, and the War Department had instructed the
officers to protect Governor Chamberlain from do-
mestic violence. It was known that Chamberlain was

KU KLUX KLAN, 1865-1877 285

sending directions to these troops, and a number of
them were brought into the State House by his
command.

But the joint session proceeded. Speaker E. W. M.
Mackey became much excited when told by Speaker
Wallace that he was in the Chair, and walked over
towards Wallace. Then Mackey called his Sergeant-
at-Arms, who was a negro; Speaker Wallace called
his Sergeant-at-Arms and as they both came for-
ward, they were followed by both Radical and Demo-
cratic members. Trouble was imminent, until
Speaker Wallace requested his House to be seated,
which they promptly obeyed.

For several days the Speakers kept their Chairs,
and night after night they slept as little as possible.
Each day a roll was called for each House. The
Journal was read for each House. The pretended
business for each House was gone through. Bills of
both Houses were introduced and discussed at the
same time. The Wallace House consisted of 66 mem-
bers, and the Mackey House consisted of six white
men and fifty negroes.

There were often Speakers on both sides talking
at the same time. After several days the Wallace
House was joined by two negroes, Thomas Hamil-
ton, and N. B. Meyers, who were members of the
Mackey body. Hamilton made a speech in which he
justified himself for leaving the Radical body. This
dual House continued until Dec. 4, 1876, when the
Wallace House was informed that a large constabu-
lary force, supported by Chamberlain, who was hold-

286 AUTHENTIC HISTORY

ing the office of Governor and who had the support
of the commanding officer of the garrison, had his
troops ready in the State House, and would enter
during the day and would eject certain members of
the Wallace House.

The Wallace House was well armed, and knowing
that the Ku Klux Klan, increased by tremendous
numbers, were marching to their assistance from all
the Southern States in case of a conflict, and that
more than fifteen thousand commanded by Captain
John C. Lester, were within easy call of the State
House, armed and ready to resist, and with reinforce-
ments sufficient to annihilate the troops, General
Wallace maintained his policy of patience for which
he was renowned, and decided to stay no longer in
the State House.

He arose and said:

"Gentlemen of the House of Representatives: I
have just been informed that there are now in readi-
ness upward of one hundred men who are about to
enter this Hall for the purpose of ejecting certain
members upon this floor. The members for whom it
is intended that the force shall be applied, have been
recognized by this House as members, and we dispute
the authority of the State government to eject from
this floor any member of this House upon the ground
that he is not a member of the House of Representa-
tives of the State of South Carolina.

"We insist that this House is the only competent
authority to pass upon the qualifications of its own
members. The force to which I have alluded is acting

KU KLUX KLAN, 1865-1877 287

by and under the authority of Governor Chamberlain
and under his commission. The Chair is given dis-
tinctly to understand that if that force is resisted by
the members of this House, the military force of the
United States will be invoked to its assistance.

"That assistance will be rendered by the United
States, not for the purpose of upholding another body
claiming to be the House of Representatives of South
Carolina, but, upon the grounds, that that force is
under the Government, and that the action of the
Military is in support of the Executive authority of
the State.

"With the view of preventing a collision upon
this floor in which lives may be lost and blood shed;
with the view of preserving the public peace; with
the view of submitting to a proper and legal arbi-
tration all the rights we claim on this floor ; the Chair
is of the opinion that this House should withdraw
from this Hall.

"While we assert our rights as the legal Represen-
tatives of South Carolina, while we dispute any au-
thority under the sun to decide for us who have rights
upon this floor, but solely for the purpose of pre-
serving peace and preventing bloodshed; and of
conforming our conduct to the public teachings of
the political leaders of the State, I am of the opin-
ion, that this House should withdraw to another
Hall.

"It is not essential to the House of Representa-
tives that it sit in this Hall. The Constitution of
South Carolina requires that the General Assembly

288 AUTHENTIC HISTORY

shall meet in the City of Columbia, and with a view
of giving emphasis to the reason why I withdraw,
I desire to repeat, that while we claim and insist upon
our legal rights for the purpose of keeping the peace
and preventing blood-shed we will repair to another
Hall and exercise the functions that appertain to this
body.

"I may as well state that the only House that can
exist in South Carolina is a body consisting of 63
members. That constitutes a quorum of that body
under the Constitution, the membership of that body
being fixed at 124; the Constitution also provides
that a majority of these members is alone competent
to do business. I therefore, gentlemen, upon the
grounds stated, and for the reasons given, while in-
sisting that we are the only Constitutional House of
Representatives in South Carolina, for the purpose
of preventing bloodshed, recommend that we do
adjourn to another hall in this city."

After this appeal of General William H. Wallace,
the "Wallace House" of Representatives adjourned
to the Carolina Hall, and proceeded to function until
the session closed Dec. 22, 1876.

While Speaker Wallace was delivering this classic
of courage and consecration to the rights of his State,
and which immortal appeal led to its redemption and
to the saving of the Republican form of government
in this country, General John B. Gordon was plead-
ing with President Grant at Washington to remove
the troops from the State House and inaugurate
Hampton as Governor to save the bloodshed which

KU KLUX KLAN, 1865-1877 289

would come if the people of South Carolina, led by
the Ku Klux Klan should be forced "to fight with
their backs to the wall." But President Grant
promised no relief.

The plans of Governor Chamberlain to cause the
clash between the Wallace House and the soldiers
he had sent to the State House had been discovered
by the Ku Klux Klan in a mysterious manner, and
Speaker Wallace was notified of Chamberlain's plot
to send a proclamation into the Hall requiring all
persons to leave it, by Captain John C. Lester, who,
being a stranger was ejected from the Hall of Rep-
resentatives by the Sergeant-at-Arms ; but not until
he had delivered his message to Speaker Wallace
from the Ku Klux Klan.

Under this proclamation all members of the body
presided over by Mr. Mackey were to be conducted
to the Adjutant-General's office on the lower floor
of the State House in which the soldiers had been
stationed to resist an attack.

It was expected that the House presided over by
Speaker Wallace would disregard Chamberlain's
proclamation and remain in the Hall, and that would
bring on the struggle which would destroy Wallace's
body, and preserve the body over which Mackey
presided.

The plot was defeated by the wise decision of
Speaker Wallace to withdraw from this Hall. This
was a tremendous moment for the South and par-
ticularly for South Carolina, for a collision would
have been inevitable between the two bodies if the

290 AUTHENTIC HISTORY

attempt of Governor Chamberlain to bring on
bloodshed on the part of the Wallace House had
succeeded.

On the day that the Speaker left the Hall, the
legality of the Wallace House was being considered
by the Supreme Court, in the proceedings under the
petition for mandamus against Hayne and Mackey.
There were other plots planned by Chamberlain
but before they could be executed that court had sol-
emnly adjudged that the Speaker of the Wallace
House was lawfully elected by a Constitutional
Legislature of South Carolina and that Mr. Mackey
was not entitled to his seat.

Mr. Mackey having been judicially declared to be
without power to give legislative sanction to any
measure passed by his body, and without power to
levy and collect taxes, and as presiding officer no
power to declare the rules of the election of Gover-
nor and Lieutenant-Governor, there was no reason
for the continued existence of the body known as the
Mackey House, and it was dissolved forever.

The returns of the election had been unlawfully
delivered to Mr. Mackey and the copies had been
deposited in the counties of the State. They were
sent for by the Wallace House and on the 14th of
December General Wade Hampton was declared
by Speaker Wallace to be the Governor of South
Carolina.

In the words of General William H. Wallace,
"On the same day in an open square of this city,
Columbia, South Carolina, the grandest inaugura-

KU KLUX KLAN, 1865-1877 291

tion of Governor and Lieutenant-Governor ever
witnessed in this State was celebrated. Thousands
with uncovered heads listened in silence while the
oath of office was administered and taken with the
solemnity befitting the occasion.

"This was the crowning act of the deliverance of the
people and the redemption of the State. The pent-
up feeling of the present multitude found expres-
sion in cheers, hoarse with emotion. They felt that
this was no idle ceremony; that the step had been
taken after full consideration, and was now a great
consummated fact that no human power could
reverse. Hampton and Simpson were Governor
and Lieutenant-Governor. Patriotic struggle was
rewarded. The bitter cup of political humiliation
had passed away; the State was ours, with all her
cherished traditions and proud history, was again
ours."

After this trumph of the people their patience was
tried to the point of desperation because Governor
Chamberlain still assumed to be Governor of South
Carolina.

On March 4, 1877, President It. B. Hayes was
inaugurated, and he requested Governor Wade
Hampton and Governor Chamberlain to come to
Washington, after General John B. Gordon and Cap-
tain John C. Lester, representing the Grand Wizard
of the Invisible Empire who was at that time ill,
delivered General Nathan B. Forrest's message to
President It. B. Hayes, "That the Ku Klux Klan re-
quested him to devise some policy by which the Mili-

292 AUTHENTIC HISTORY

tary would be withdrawn from the South, and the
people left in peace with the negroes as employer and
employee, with separate schools, no social or political
equality and if this was not done, they would insist on
the negroes being colonized or deported as was
Lincoln's intention and which had been the policy of
the whole country regarding all free negroes since the
foundation of our government.

The idea of the "colonization" of free negroes was
not new, for as far back as 1817, the South and the
North, both felt it was best for the whole country
that they should be colonized. Before the period of
negro servitude had ended in most of the North
Atlantic States, societies for the purpose of coloniz-
ing them were organized; and in the South in 1817
this plan had the earnest support of W. H. Craw-
ford, Henry Clay, Andrew Jackson, John Marshall,
John Tyler, James Madison, James Monroe and
other leading Southern men, who were slave owners.

In 1856 General John Tyler wrote: "The citizens
of the Southern States since the adoption of the Con-
stitution, have emancipated two hundred and fifty
thousand negro slaves. Assuming the average value
of these slaves to have been five hundred dollars, the
citizens of the Southern States have contributed one
hundred and twenty-five million dollars towards
emancipation.

"And when we consider that in almost every case
of individual emancipation at the South, a sum equal
to the full value of the slave has been invariably
given to him to enable him to purchase a home for

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"The Lone Figure in Gray"

COLONEL LEE CRANDALL

of Washington, D. C, who is 91 years old, and marched from the
White House to the Capitol at President Harding's funeral, wearing
his Confederate uniform, thus epitomizing the unity of our Nation.

— Washington Post.

KU KLUX KLAN, 1865-1877 293

himself, and in addition to this the immense sums con-
tributed to the "Colonization Society" by others, we
do not exaggerate the sum voluntarily bestowed in
this way by the South, when we set it down at two
hundred and fifty million.

"This immense sum has been paid not by a rich
public treasury, but by private families who lived by
labor of the slaves they surrendered; not with the
slightest hope of pecuniary emolument, but from no
other possible motive than quiet and conscientious sen-
timent." (De Bow's Review, December 1856.)

So in point of unselfish devotion to the true inter-
ests of the negro, his financial, moral, physical and
spiritual welfare — the South was in the lead before
the Civil War.

It is a well-known fact that President Lincoln ap-
proved of deportation or colonization of the negroes
after the Civil War and the Ku Klux Klansmen who
went to discuss the problem with President Hayes, re-
minded him of President Lincoln's policy.

President Hayes is said to have been deeply im-
pressed with the earnestness of these Southern gen-
tlemen, and not wishing to further harass and worry
them into greater retaliation, he issued an order to
the Secretary of War, to remove the troops from the
State House of South Carolina, and at noon, on
April the 10th, 1877, the order went into effect.
This same day Chamberlain notified Governor
Hampton of his intention to surrender to him the
Executive Chambers; and on April the 11th, the
transfer of the papers and seal was made and Gov-

294 AUTHENTIC HISTORY

ernor Hampton began his service as Governor of
South Carolina, and called the General Assembly
to meet in Special Session, April 24, 1877.

The Wallace House met in the House of Repre-
sentatives on April 24, 1877, and commenced to dis-
charge its duties as the House of Representatives of
South Carolina, thus ending the "Revolution of 1876"
with as little blood-shed as could have been possible
under the circumstances.

The "Wallace House" will live in the hearts of lib-
erty-loving people forever, for through their cour-
age they maintained the dignity of the judicial
tribunal, and abided by its just decision, and this
struggle of 1876 settled forever the supremacy of
the white man's government so far as the South is
concerned.

Until this day Sir Arthur Balfour's declaration
holds good, that "The admission of inferior colored
races to participation in government would destroy
civilization itself." This fact is as firmly established
in the minds of the Southern States as it is in Eng-
land in regard to the South African Confederation
to which Balfour had reference.

"The Spirit of 1776" which made Moultrie man his
palmetto log fort and destroy Sir Peter Parker's
fleet pulsated in the bosom of every Southerner and
made possible the victory of 1876, — the triumph of the
whites over the blacks; of civilization and progress
over barbarism and the forces which were undermin-
ing the foundations of our country, and destroying
republican form of Government."

KU KLUX KLAN, 1865-1877 295

William Henry Wallace was born in Laurens
County, S. C, March 24, 1828, and died March 21,
1901. His family was of Scotch descent and had
been long residents of that county. His father,
Daniel Wallace, was a member of Congress. Wil-
liam Henry Wallace was prepared for College at
Cokesbury, S. C, and graduated from the South
Carolina University in 1849, and began the study
of law.

He was admitted to the bar in 1860. The same
year he was elected to the Legislature of his State
and served two sessions. Called by the voice of his
state to arms he left the Legislature and joined the
18th South Carolina regiment when South Carolina
seceded.

He entered Company A as a private, but was ap-
pointed adjutant before he reached Virginia, and was
soon promoted to Lieutenant-Colonel. At the sec-
ond battle of Manassas his regiment was engaged in
fighting and he succeeded to full command when Col.
Gadberry was killed.

Col. Wallace then commanded his regiment in all
the engagements of Longstreet's Corps and in such
a manner as to merit the praise of his superior offi-
cers and gain the confidence of his men. After the
explosion of the mine at Petersburg, Va., he suc-
ceeded Gen. Elliott as Brigadier-General. His
brigade consisted of the 17th, 18th, 22d, 23d, 26th
and the Holcombe Legion, and at the surrender of
Appomattox it was a part of General John B. Gor-

296 AUTHENTIC HISTORY

don's (formerly Stonewall Jackson's) corps, Bushrod
Johnson's division.

The surrender of Lee's army came and the last
infantry fighting was from General Wallace's com-
mand. Strange to say in one of the hottest of the
battles he was struck by bullets eight times but was
never severely wounded. This is another instance in
the War between the States of a private from the
ranks ending his career as Brigadier-General.

After the close of the War he practiced law and
served several times in the Legislature. When the
reconstruction measures were applied to South Caro-
lina he was made chairman of a county convention
to arouse the people to rise up against and deliver
themselves from this radical government.

In 1872 a compromise was made with the Republi-
cans by which a ticket composed of Independent
Democrats and Republicans was sent to the Legis-
lature on which was elected General Wallace for the
Democrats and his body servant, John Wallace, a
negro, on the Republican ticket. This negro was de-
voted to his former master and was at all times
respectful to him although he was put in this
political position by the Radicals.

In 1874 General Wallace was again elected to the
Legislature and in 1876 when the people had deter-
mined to rescue the state from Radical mis-rule, his
services were most powerful. His most useful poli-
tical work and the most dangerous was presiding
over the Wallace House, which at last freed South

KU KLUX KLAN, 1865-1877 297

Carolina from negro and carpet-bag rule, with the
assistance of the "Invisible Empire."

(General Wallace's daughter, Mrs. Victor Gage of
Birmingham, Alabama, and his grand-daughter, Mrs.
Morris Bush, who is one of the most patrician beauties
of Alabama, have rendered me great assistance in com-
piling the biography of General Wallace.)

F. J. Moses, Jr., a white man, a native of the
State, whose character is properly delineated in the
words of Governor Chamberlain, was Speaker of the
House of Representatives, and he and his associates,
seventy-two whites and eighty-five negro members,
took office in July, 1868.

The Governor who was inaugurated was General
R. K. Scott from Ohio, and was one of the agents
of the Freedmen's Bureau in the State and they
began the reconstruction of South Carolina. Their
first act was to refurnish the halls of legislation in
the State House, replacing chairs that cost one dol-
lar with crimson plush gothic chairs, for four-dollar
benches, two-hundred dollar crimson plush sofas.

The whole finishings cost $50,000, but they appro-
priated $95,000 to pay the bill for sundries, supplies
and such debts. $350,000 were appropriated, thus
the State was plunged into needless debt by these
unprincipled men.

During this time a threat was made to impeach
Governor Scott, and he paid Speaker Moses $10,000
for his rulings against it. During the six years
1868-1874 Scott was the governor, F. J. Moses was
the Speaker of the House of Representatives, whose

298 AUTHENTIC HISTORY

chief mode of plundering the state was to issue illegal
pay certificates and this was known as the "Legis-
lative Ring."

There were ten messengers employed and he
issued one hundred and forty certificates one ses-
sion. He issued this session $1,168,225 worth of cer-
tificates, all of which except $200,000 was robbery of
the State. Yet this F. J. Moses, Jr., was elected to
succeed Scott and the robbery continued.

As Speaker of the House of Representatives, the
debt of the State had increased from $5,407,306 to
$18,515,000. The taxpayers of the State had no
voice in legislation and were reduced to trying some
form of relief. Knowing the State government
would not aid them they organized in 1871 the Tax-
payers' Convention of which they issued an appeal to
the country and the President of the United States
for assistance, but none came.

A committee was formed to go to Washington and
personally appeal to the President and it was hard
for them to raise money to go there, but these corrupt
state officials drew $2500 from the State Treasury
and sent men to Washington to urge President
Grant to refuse them aid. When the committee of
the real citizens of South Carolina approached
President Grant he treated them impatiently and
their mission was a failure.

Moses pardoned all criminals who would pay him,
and even his successor, Governor D. H. Chamber-
lain, a republican, said of him when he was illegally
elected to the Supreme Court, "He is as infamous a

KU KLUX KLAN, 1865-1877 299

character as ever in any age disgraced and prosti-
tuted a public position."

Governor Chamberlain preached reform and per-
haps tried to better conditions, but it had little effect.
The people continued to send men to see President
Grant but he only refused them aid and the question
confronted the people to devise some means to secure
control of their State and the Ku Klux Klan. fulfilled
their hopes at last, under the leadership of Captain
James A. Townsend, First Grand Cyclops Ku Klux
Klan of South Carolina.

XXI.
LOUISIANA.

There are historians who say there was no calamity
to the South so great as the loss of Mr. Lincoln save
perhaps that of the war; and but for that calamity
the states undoubtedly would have continued with
their self government in the Union on the lines that
he had marked out and the horrors of reconstruction
would have been avoided, but his indecision caused
his plan to fail.

Congress had pledged its faith that the war was
purposed only to save the Union, and was not for
subjugation or oppression. Mr. Lincoln had through-
out the war held to the fact that secession was null and
void and the states still to be in the Union but acting
rebelliously. Johnson likewise, as history shows, took
the position that a state could not secede and that
therefore none of the Southern states had ever been
out of the Union.

When the laying down of arms was completed the
"dawn which had cheered the close of Lincoln's life
had become the full day of peace."

After the Confederate arms were laid down the
"triune personality called (the government of the
United States) took many steps in the establishment
of peaceful conditions, beginning early in 1865 and

300

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Susan Lawrence Davis, Author.

KU KLUX KLAN, 1865-1877 301

ending in what may be called *de jure peace' — that
of April 2, 1866, all being done with the universal
wishes of the people."

President Lincoln evidently had no intention of
taking hold of the states after military necessity had
passed, but his unwise, unpatriotic, and most impolitic
policy was to restore relations and functions, based on
the negro vote.

In a letter to Governor Michael Hahn, of Louisi-
ana, dated March 13, 1864, Lincoln writes: "Now
you are about to have a convention which, among
other things, will define the elective franchise, I
barely suggest for your consideration, whether some
of the colored people may not be let in — as, for in-
stance, the very intelligent. But this is only a sug-
gestion not to be made public, but to you alone."

The writer will merely say here that both these
men, namely, Governor Hahn and Abraham Lincoln,
realized the people's fitness for self rule, and the
duty in the premises of trusting the Southern people
with all their future political problems.

About the time of Lincoln's death it leaked out
that some unlawful or revolutionary scheme like the
forming of a new Constitution was on foot. When it
transpired the great Louisiana jurist, Christian
Roselius, who had stood for the Union and against
seceding in the convention of 1861 and through the
war said, that "Every participant in the treasonable
scheme should be arrested and sent to jail," but so
secret was the conspiracy that it had actually ma-
tured a constitution. It was then that the horrors

302 AUTHENTIC HISTORY

of reconstruction began. The flagrant perfidy of
politicians; the tyranny of military law, the trials
of the drum-head, were just a few of the injustices
to which the people of the state of Louisiana were
submitted. After ten years of horror the reconstruc-
tion ended when the Ku Klux Klan redeemed the
state.

In an election which was held November 4, 1872,
the republican candidate, W. P. Kellogg, who had
represented Louisiana in the Senate, was counted in
by the Returning Board, which was not legal. The
Federal power installed the Kellogg government
which had not been elected and he was unable to per-
form the functions except when backed by Federal
bayonets. This brought about great confusion and
brought on the Colfax riot in which so many lives
were lost. The people refused to pay any taxes to
the Kellogg government and the Legislature passed
some very stringent tax laws, among them one which
contained a provision that if anyone failed to pay
their taxes within thirty days he could not bring suit
in his own behalf or be a witness in his own behalf
and the officials were ordered to deny him his day in
court until his taxes were paid. This and the Re-
turning Board law were among the things that made
such unrest among people and led them to organize
under the name of the "White League." This
league started to arm itself and Kellogg attempted
to prevent. There was a collision and the two forces
meeting on the levy had a bloody battle in which
40 persons were killed and 100 wounded. In the elec-

KU KLUX KLAN, 1865-1877 308

tion of 1874 the democrats were elected and the Re-
turning Board by throwing out a number of polls
and parishes elected a republican legislature. Kel-
logg was always writing to Washington for more
troops and still more troops and he would use them
just as he chose. General P. H. Sheridan was put
in command of Louisiana and he telegraphed to the
Secretary of War that fair dealing could be estab-
lished in Louisiana by the arrest of the members of the
White League. He urged that they should be de-
clared banditti and tried by a military commission
for untruthful men had convinced him and asked him
to so inform the government that 1500 murders of
Union men and negroes — political murders — had been
committed in Louisiana since 1868. But all of this
wrong-doing did not benefit Kellogg in the least.
The White League was not the same organization as
the Ku Klux Klan and preceded this organization in
Louisiana. This state was made a member of the In-
visible Empire in 1869 and did very efficient work in
the campaign of 1876 when Louisiana was successful
in her struggle for white supremacy.

Major Isbel, of General Forrest's staff, told Rev.
Joseph E. Roy, a carpet-bagger in 1871, that when-
ever the negroes in Louisiana would work the former
owners would offer them part of the crop and furnish
everything and this plan worked well.

Mr. Roy said that General Forrest told him that
he had never had any trouble with his negroes; that
he took 45 negro men with him to the Civil War to
drive his teams, care for his cavalry horses, cook for

304 AUTHENTIC HISTORY

him and otherwise assist him and he promised them
that when the war was over, whether he won or not,
he would set them free. He said he only lost four
of them by death during the four years of the war
and that the remaining forty-one were still with him
on his plantation and loved him and honored him and
would even cast their votes for him when he had not
asked them to do so and the Republicans could not
persuade them to vote with them when any issue
was before the people that General Forrest wanted.
He never ran for an office but asked for special taxes
in Mississippi and Alabama for building a railroad.

Mr. Roy wrote to Northern people that four schools
had been broken up by the Ku Klux Klan and several
buildings burned and notices served on the white fe-
male teachers from the North to leave the state. "To
show the spirit of the men, one of the state officials
passed the negro school and I was standing near with
Rev. J. W. Alvord of Boston, and he said, 'What is
that, a school? Is it a "nigger school"?' I answered:
'Yes, sir, taught by females.' 'Well I have seen the
end of absurdities,' he answered." Mr. Roy said that
he heard an old steamboat captain in Louisiana say
that General Ben Butler was the biggest thief in the
world and that he had stolen enough silver spoons in
New Orleans to build him a fine house in Washington
City. Mr. Roy replied: "If you don't behave we
will send General Butler back to straighten you out."

Mr. Roy said that he was on a boat with the famous
Admiral Semmes of "The Alabama' and tibat he said
he "submitted to force but that he still believed their

KU KLUX KLAN, 1865-1877 305

purposes were right." He further stated that Judge
Lumpkin of Georgia told him that "by and by they
meant to join the West and leave New England out
in the cold, politically.

The national election depended on the vote of
Louisiana in 1876 and therefore the whole country
watched it with great interest and the methods of
the Returning Board became known throughout the
country and the people learned that the entire elec-
tion machinery was in the hands of adventurous
8 'carpet-baggers." There had been ballot box stuff-
ing, falsification of returns and other crimes were
clearly shown but this did not impress the govern-
ment at Washington sufficiently to see the legally
elected officers seated. The democrats had carried
the state by 8000 majority but when the Returning
Board got through with its work it had made a 9000
republican majority. There were two governments,
one headed by Governor Nichols, duly elected by the
popular vote and the other by a Mr. Packard and
both these governments organized in 1877. From
January to March Louisiana remained in this con-
dition with two governors, two legislatures and two
supreme courts.

Packard had promised the negroes anything they
would ask for if they would vote for him so over
1000 of these negroes voters lived, ate and slept in
the State Capitol. The magnificent building became
so filthy that it was dangerous to the public health
and finally smallpox broke out in the State House.
With this horrible condition Packard still held on

306 AUTHENTIC HISTORY

hoping the Federal Government would help him as
they had Kellogg to be seated. After several months
of this condition in Louisiana there were many riots
and civil war was threatened and President Ruth-
erford B. Hayes decided to withdraw the troops and
Packard packed his carpet-bag and left the State
never to return.

In 1877 the period of reconstruction practically
ended with the overthrow of radical rule in South
Carolina and Louisiana, and the Union was restored
as it was in 1776, by the Ku Klux Klan, commanded
by the immortal Wizard of the Saddle and Grand
Wizard of the Invisible Empire, Nathan B. Forrest.

Mr. John C. Calhoun said: "The Constitution
made the Union. There would have been no Union
without the Constitution. Therefore when that Con-
stitution was violated and repudiated by Abraham
Lincoln and his party the Union was destroyed" —
destroyed by the republican party — and this history
will prove overwhelmingly that the Union was saved
by the Ku Klux Klan.

This fact is stated that "confidence in the South-
ern people may be restored and that they truly ac-
cept the results of the war in good faith may be be-
lieved and may in some manner relieve the southern
people from the charge of treason in order that their
descendants and the future generation of Northern
people may not, under the influence of so-called his-
tories, false, partisan and vituperative cease to honor
them and that their right to elect Southern men Presi-
dent of the United States may not be longer abridged.

KU KLUX KLAN, 1865-1877 307

Quoting from "All Around the Civil War" by
William Hawn, of the Seventh Louisiana Regiment :
"I yield to none in my devotion to the Union. One
country, one Constitution, one destiny. The Union,
of hearts, the Union of hands and the flag of our
Union forever."

Colonel Lee Crandall of Louisiana was in "Stone-
wall Jackson's" corps, Confederate States Army, and
now typifies the Union of States.

The Ku Klux Klan of Louisiana was led by Gen-
eral Albert G. Blanchard who was a Confederate
soldier commanding a brigade.

XXII.
THE CLOSE OF THE KU KLUX KLAN.

I believe that the age in which we live, and the
rapid march of events that have marked the progress
of both North and South since the Civil War has
caused the reconstruction period to be too little
known; that even those of the North who were con-
temporaneous with this time, much less those who
have grown to adults since, have very little knowl-
edge of the cruelty and injustice visited upon the
South by the unnecessary reconstruction methods.

Among the historic cruelties of the world they will
stand out preeminent before the fair-minded, hon-
est Northerner and will be classed by impartial
minds with the horrible murder of the Duke of Alva
in the Low Countries, which sent a thrill of horror
throughout Christendom; the Massacre of St.
Bartholomew and the Spanish Inquisition, and I
here before God measuring my words, knowing their
full extent and import that neither the deeds of the
Duke of Alva in the Low Countries, nor the Mas-
sacre of St. Bartholomew, nor the thumb-screws or
engines of torture of the Spanish Inquisition begin to
compare with the atrocity and the hideous crime of
reconstruction of the seceded states of the United
States of America by the General Government.

KU KLUX KLAN, 1865-1877 309

This fact compelled the men of the South from
the Potomac to the Rio Grande to forget all party
lines, Union men and Secessionists, Whigs and Demo-
crats, to consolidate into the one political body known
as the "Solid South''; this did not follow the "Lost
Cause," but to protect themselves against a return
of such conditions as they suffered in 1865 to 1877,
and this combination replaces the Ku Klux Klan
which is for self-preservation, the first law of nature.

The final act of the Ku Klux Klan was assisting
the people of South Carolina in seating their legal
officials in 1877.

The Klan was at that time guided by General John
B. Gordon who had been appointed by General
Forrest to act in his place as he was ill. Captain
John C. Lester, Captain John B. Kennedy, General
Edmund Pettus, Major Robert Donnell and Major
James R. Crowe and Colonel Sumner A. Cunning-
ham accompanied him, leading of Ku Klux Klans,
comprising many thousands, who were ready to come
to the assistance of the State officials.

The Invisible Empire was of one accord, as in the
words of General John B. Gordon, when he arose in
the "Wallace House," by invitation of the Speaker
and exclaimed :

"In times of great peril when the liberties of the
people are involved, he that hesitates is a dastard,
and he that doubts is damned."

As the years have gone by we can not fail to pay
tribute to the men of the Ku Klux Klan who accom-
plished so much good. There is a sense of gratitude

310 AUTHENTIC HISTORY

throughout the South, and they are called the saviors
of "Sunny South."

There was a bond of union, in the Ku Klux Klan,
as strong as the eternal hills. There was a sense
of honor never shown by any organization in the
history of the world, where under no circumstances
could they be induced to betray each other. "It
arose in mystery, and was clothed in secrecy."

Will the world, today, deny the fact that the Ku
Klux Klan solved the problem of White Supremacy,
and that the "Solid South" was the direct outcome
of its activities?

Dr. William M. Polk said, "The history of the
Civil War South belongs to the 'men and women,'
the history of Reconstruction (and the Ku Klux
Klan) belong to the 'women and men,' for in that
dire period when the men had almost collapsed, and
were bewildered on their way, the women encouraged
them to still fight on, for 'Field and Fireside,' under
the* leadership of the Ku Klux Klan, between the
years 1865 and 1877."

The women made the regalia for the Ku Klux
Klan, kept the home-fires burning, guarded the
secrets of the Klan, and by their inspiration, held be-
fore them a vision of the "Glorified South" of today;
making possible the dream and the determination of
the Ku Klux Klan, whose very motive and act pro-
claimed: "Out of this nettle danger, we pluck this
flower, Safety!"; safety for the white race, safety for
separation of Church and State, safety for Civili-
zation in saving our Republican form of government.

KU KLUX KLAN, 1865-1877 311

The Ku Klux Klan, its work done, and well done,
disbanded forever, upon the death of General Nathan
B. Forrest, in 1877.

When Forrest's great spirit had passed, his name
was engraven upon the hearts of all the Southland as
sacred, and as a synonym for "Ku Klux Klan."

General Forrest spent the summer of 1877 seeking
health in the mountains of Tennessee, at Hurricane
Springs, and in August he went to Elkmont Springs,
Giles County, near Pulaski, the birthplace of the Ku
Klux Klan. The marvelous mineral water of these
springs improved his condition for awhile but the
deep-seated disease had wrought its work and it was
apparent that his days were numbered.

He called the Ku Klux Klan to meet at Elkmont
Springs and assured them that his prayer had been
answered — and the South was saved. He then is-
sued by couriers a call for a final meeting at Athens,
Alabama, of all the Klansmen of the "Invisible
Empire," as his strength was failing and this place
was on his way back to his home in Memphis.

All of the Grand Dragons of the Realms of the
Invisible Empire responded to the call and many
other of the Ku Klux Klan were there when the
meeting was held in 1877, in the "Pepin Hall" — an
improvised auditorium in the upper chamber of the
Home of Mr. and Mrs. Henry J. Pepin, for all
public buildings had been destroyed by the Federal
Army and this was the meeting place for all public
gatherings at that time.

In the "Pepin Hall" was an altar which had been

312 AUTHENTIC HISTORY

placed there by Mr. and Mrs. Pepin who were
Catholics, and who arranged to have a priest come at
intervals for services and they would invite the
Catholics far and near to attend.

In this Hall in 1867, the Trinity Episcopal
Church, of Athens, was organized; Mrs. Pattie
Vasser McClure, later Mrs. Charles Berry, and
her brilliant and saintly sister, Mrs. Rebecca Vasser
Howard- Saunders, were the leading spirits. Right
Reverend Richard Hooker Wilmer was the Bishop
of Alabama at this time. This church held services
in this hall until 1875, when the Court House which
had been destroyed by the United States Army dur-
ing the war was rebuilt and a room was loaned to
this Church until funds were raised by Mrs.
Saunders' indefatigable efforts to build the present
Trinity Church.

The Masonic Hall of the town had been damaged
by the Federal soldiers and this hall was used by the
Masons. On the night General Forrest met with
the Ku Klux Klan the last time this hall was used
by the Masons, who first donned their Masonic
regalia and an hour later their Ku Klux Klan
regalia.

General Forrest had orally communicated to
the Grand Dragons of the Invisible Empire, his
order of disbandment number one (No. 1, Septem-
ber, 1877) after which he reverently approached the
little altar and kneeling led them in prayer.

He arose and turned to them and with great emo-
tion and said, "Mary's and my Mother's prayers have

KU KLUX KLAN, 1865-1877 313

been answered, and I have made my peace with
God, and I wish to die at peace with all the world."
He thanked the Ku Klux Klan for their fidelity
to him during his leadership, and assured them that
he had never doubted them, or believed that they had
ever violated their Ku Klux oath. General Nathan
B. Forrest's last words to the Ku Klux Klan were:
"There never was a time before or since its organ-
ization when such an Order as the Ku Klux Klan
could have lived. May there never be again!"

THE WALLACE HOUSE

Abbeville.

1. W. W. Bradley,

2. R. R. Hemphill,

3. F. A. Conner,

4. William Hood,

5. T. L. Moore.

Aiken.

6. C. E. Sawyer,

7. J. J. Woodward,

8. L. M. Asbill,

9. J. G. Guignard.

Anderson.

10. H. R. Vandiver,

11. R. W. Simpson,

12. W. C. Brown,

13. James L. Orr.

Barnwell.

14. Isaac S. Bamberg,

15. John W. Holmes,

16. Lr. W. Youmans,

17. M. A. Rountree,

18. Robert Aldrich.

Beaufort.

19. T. Hamilton, Rep.

20. N. B. Myers, Rep.

Chesterfield.
ft. J. C. Coit,

22. D. T. Redfearn.

Colleton.

23. H. E. Bissell,

24. Wm. Maree,

25. J. N. Cummings,

26. L. E. Parler,

27. Robert Jones.

Edgefield.

28. W. S. Allen,

29. J. C. Sheppard,

30. James Callison,

31. T. E. Jennings,

32. H. A. Shaw.

Greenville.

33. J. F. Donald,

34. J. Thos. Austin,

35. J. W. Gray,

36. J. L. Westmoreland.

Horry.

37. K D. Bryan,

38. John R. Cooper.

Lancaster.

39. John B. Erwin,

40. J. C. Blakeney.

Laurens.

41. J. B. Humbert,

42. J. W. Watts,

43. D. W. Anderson.

Lexington.

44. G. Leaphart,

45. G. Muller.

Marion.

46. J. G. Blue,

47. James McRea,

48. R. H. Rodgers,

49. J. P. Davis.

Marlboro.

50. Philip M. Hamer,

51. Thos. M. Edens.

Newberry.

52. S. S. Bridges, R.

Oconee.

53. B. Frank Sloan,

54. John S. Verner.

Orangeburg.

55. W. H. Reedish, wh. Rep,

Pickens.

56. D. F. Bradley,

57. E. H. Bates.

Spartanburg.

58. W. P. Compton,

59. John W. Wofford,

60. F. S. Allen,

61. Charles Petty.

315

316 THE WALLACE HOUSE

Sumter.
W. J. H. Westberry.
Union.

63. W. H. Wallace, Sp'r.

64. G. D. Peake,

65. Wm. Jeffries.

York.

66. A. E. Hutchison,

67. J. A. Deal,

68. W. E. Byers,

69. B. H. Massey

The Wallace House. Organized November 28, 1876.
Officers:

70. John T. Sloan, Clerk. 74. D. R. Elsins, Asst. Sergt.-at-

71. W. McB. Sloan, Asst. Clerk. arms.

72. W. R. Williams, Reading Cl'k. 75. L. N. Zealy, Door Keeper.

73. J. D. Brown, Sergeant-at- 76. Judge Thompson H. Cooke, of

arms. the Eighth Circuit, who ad-

ministered the oath of office
to the Members.

W. A. Reckling,

Photographic Artist.

Columbia, South Carolina.

ROUS? fl^5fc,2

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STILL'S HOOKBINDERY

3605 WHITE OAK DR

HOUSTON. TEXAS 77007

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